Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet

About the Mottle-cheeked Tyrannulet

The mottle-cheeked tyrannulet (Phylloscartes ventralis) is a generally common, small species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

Some early twentieth century authors considered the mottle-cheeked tyrannulet and what are now the Panama tyrannulet (P. flavovirens) and olive-green tyrannulet (P. virescens) as conspecific. The three are now treated by many authors as a superspecies.

The mottle-cheeked tyrannulet has three subspecies, the nominate P. v. ventralis (Temminck, 1824), P. v. angustirostris (d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837), and P. v. tucumanus (Zimmer, JT, 1940). Some authors believe that the "recognition of subspecies may be unwarranted".

The mottle-cheeked tyrannulet is about 12 cm (4.7 in) long and weighs about 9 g (0.32 oz). The sexes have the same plumage, and the subspecies also have essentially the same plumage as well. Adults have a short thin whitish supercilium, an indistinct broken whitish eye-ring, a dusky line through the eye, a wide whitish and dusky crescent below the eye, a dusky "moustache", and the eponymous whitish and... Wikipedia →