Elegant Mourner Laniisoma elegans Shrike-like Cotinga

Elegant Mourner Laniisoma elegans
(aka Shrike-like Cotinga)

Brazilian name: chibante

REGUA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
November 2006

The Elegant Mourner is distributed in south-east Brazil. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. Previously the disjunct populations in the foothills of the Andes from western Venezuela, in Colombia, in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia were lumped with this species but are now split as Andean Mourner L. buckleyi by the HBW and Birdlife International Checklist and other authorities.

They are found in humid forest and mature secondary growth usually near streams. They feed on fruit and insects.

It has traditionally been included in the Cotinga family but is now felt to be more closely related to the Schiffornis mourners and included in the Tityras and allies family.

It has a black cap, olive-green upperparts and bright yellow underparts with black spots on the throat and barring on the remainder of the underparts. The bill is blackish above and yellowish below.

The female is more extensively barred than the male and has a less solidly black cap.

The call is very thin, high-pitched and repetitive.

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