Slaty-capped Flycatcher

About the Slaty-capped Flycatcher

The slaty-capped flycatcher (Leptopogon superciliaris) is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It is found from Costa Rica south to Bolivia and east to Venezuela and Trinidad. The slaty-capped flycatcher's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) assigns it two subspecies, the nominate L. s. superciliaris (Tschudi, 1844) and L. s. albiventer (Hellmayr, 1918). The Clements taxonomy assigns a third, L. s. transandinus, that the IOC includes within the nominate. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats albiventer as a separate species, the white-bellied flycatcher, leaving the slaty-capped as a monotypic species. Several other subspecies have been suggested but not recognized.

This article follows the IOC one species, two subspecies model. The slaty-capped flycatcher is 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long and weighs 9.5 to 14.8 g (0.34 to 0.52 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Both subspecies show much plumage variation within them. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a slaty gray crown. They have white lores, a thin white supercilium, and a wide dusky... Wikipedia →