Mountain Elaenia

About the Mountain Elaenia

The mountain elaenia (Elaenia frantzii) is a small passerine bird in subfamily Elaeniinae of family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela.

The mountain elaenia has these four subspecies: E. f. ultima Griscom, 1935 E. f. frantzii Lawrence, 1865 E. f. browni Bangs, 1898 E. f. pudica Sclater, PL, 1871 The three subspecies other than the nominate E. f. frantzii have bounced around as subspecies of other elaenia species before reaching their current status. However, vocal studies published in 2016 suggest that the species has only two subspecies, with ultima being absorbed into frantzii and browni being absorbed into pudica. There are further suggestions that the two putative subspecies should be treated as separate species.

At least one early twentieth century publication treated the mountain elaenia and highland elaenia (E. obscura) as conspecific but by the middle of the century that treatment had been abandoned, and early twenty-first century genetic studies showed that they are not closely related.

The mountain elaenia's specific epithet celebrates the... Wikipedia →