Tawny-crowned Pygmy-tyrant (Euscarthmus meloryphus)

Tawny-crowned Pygmy-tyrant
Euscarthmus meloryphus

Brazilian name: barulhento

Mucugê, Bahia, Brazil
October 2008

According to Ridgely & Tudor, one of the distinguishing features of the Tawny-crowned Pygmy-tyrant is that its wings are "virtually plain ". However, in "Birds of Ecuador", Ridgely & Greenfield mention "wings with two prominent buff wing-bars" Although the Ecuadorian/Peruvian birds are of the subspecies E. m. fulviceps and these photos are of the nominate race, I would say that the Brazilian birds also have fairly prominent buffy wing-bars..

It also has a dull white eyering and lores while E. m. fulviceps has buffy lores. Its English name comes from a semi-concealed rufous patch on the top of its head which you can see well in the second photo.

The nominate subspecies is found in the Brazilian cerrado and disjunct populations are found in similar scrubby habitats in Colombia and Venezuela (the sub-species E. m. paulus) and in Ecuador and Peru (E. m. fulviceps)

Sometimes difficult to see but it is easy to hear with a distinctive squeaky call which gives rise to its Brazilian name.

There are illustrations in Ridgely & Tudor, Volume 2, Plate 33, in Sick, Plate 34, in Hilty & Brown, Plate 36 and in Ridgely & Greenfield, Plate 69.

There are recordings and a distribution map on xeno-canto.

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