Social Flycatcher
Encyclopedia
The Social Flycatcher and Vermilion-crowned Flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis) are passerine
bird
s from the Americas
, a member of the large tyrant flycatcher
family
(Tyrannidae).
It is sometimes split into two species, with the Social Flycatcher, Myiozetetes texensis, from Costa Rica
northwards to Mexico
, and the Vermillion-crowned Flycatcher, M. similis proper, from southwest Costa Rica across South America
.
In appearance the Social Flycatcher resembles a smaller Boat-billed Flycatcher
or Great Kiskadee
. The adult is 16–18 cm long and weighs 24–27 g. The head is dark grey with a strong white eyestripe and a usually concealed orange to vermillion
crown stripe. The upperparts are olive-brown, and the wings and tail are brown with only faint rufous fringes. The underparts are yellow and the throat is white. Young birds have a paler eye mask, reduced crown stripe, and have chestnut fringes to the wing and tail feathers. The call is a sharp peeurrr and the dawn song is a chips-k’-cheery.
As the specific epithet similis (Latin
for "the similar one") indicates, this species looks much like its closest living relative the Rusty-margined Flycatcher
(Myiozetetes cayanensis), and also like the White-bearded Flycatcher
(Phelpsia inornatus), White-ringed Flycatcher
(Conopias albovittatus) and Lesser Kiskadee
(Pitangus/Philohydor lictor). In fact, except at close range these are all but indistinguishable from appearance alone. They and the two larger similar species mentioned above share much of their range. Though they all are apparently fairly close relatives, the group to which they seem to belong also includes species
with rather different head-pattern, like the Grey-capped Flycatcher
which also belongs to Myiozetetes
.
south to northeastern Peru
, southern Brazil
and northwestern Argentina
. It is a common and wide-ranging species and thus not considered threatened by the IUCN.
They like to perch openly in trees, several meters above ground. From such perches they will sally out for considerable distances to catch insect
s in flight, to which purpose they utilize a range of aerobatic maneuvers. They also regularly hover and glean
for prey and small berries
– e.g. from Gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba), which they seek out and also utilize in human-modified habitat such as secondary forest
or urban parks and gardens –, and will pick off prey from the ground and even enter shallow waters to feed on aquatic invertebrates, tadpole
s and occasionally small fish. They were observed to forage peacefully alongside Common Marmoset
s (Callithrix jacchus) in the undergrowth, maybe even cooperating with the monkeys in flushing prey from hiding. But perhaps this behavior only occurs during the dry season
, when fruits are scarcer; it has been noted that they do not join mixed-species feeding flock
s very often
The nest, built by the female in a bush, tree or on a building, is a large roofed structure of stems and straw, which for protection is often built near a wasp
, bee
or ant
nest, or the nest of another tyrant flycatcher. The nest site is often near or over water. The typical clutch is two to four brown- or lilac-blotched cream or white eggs, laid between February and June.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s from the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, a member of the large tyrant flycatcher
Tyrant flycatcher
The tyrant flycatchers are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds on Earth, with more than 400 species. They are the most diverse avian family in every country in the Americas, except for the United States and...
family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
(Tyrannidae).
It is sometimes split into two species, with the Social Flycatcher, Myiozetetes texensis, from Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
northwards to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and the Vermillion-crowned Flycatcher, M. similis proper, from southwest Costa Rica across South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
.
Description
Boat-billed Flycatcher
The Boat-billed Flycatcher is a passerine bird. It is a large tyrant flycatcher, the only member, monotypic, of the genus Megarynchus....
or Great Kiskadee
Great Kiskadee
The Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus, is a passerine bird. It is a large tyrant flycatcher; sometimes its genus Pitangus is considered monotypic, with the Lesser Kiskadee The Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus, is a passerine bird. It is a large tyrant flycatcher; sometimes its genus Pitangus...
. The adult is 16–18 cm long and weighs 24–27 g. The head is dark grey with a strong white eyestripe and a usually concealed orange to vermillion
Vermillion
Vermillion is an alternative spelling for Vermilion, a red pigment and color. It may also refer to:-Locations:*Vermillion, Kansas*Vermillion, Minnesota*Vermillion, South Dakota*Vermillion County, Indiana*Vermillion River...
crown stripe. The upperparts are olive-brown, and the wings and tail are brown with only faint rufous fringes. The underparts are yellow and the throat is white. Young birds have a paler eye mask, reduced crown stripe, and have chestnut fringes to the wing and tail feathers. The call is a sharp peeurrr and the dawn song is a chips-k’-cheery.
As the specific epithet similis (Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for "the similar one") indicates, this species looks much like its closest living relative the Rusty-margined Flycatcher
Rusty-margined Flycatcher
The Rusty-margined Flycatcher is a species of bird in the Tyrannidae family, the tyrant flycatchers.It is found in northern and central South America in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela; also eastern Panama...
(Myiozetetes cayanensis), and also like the White-bearded Flycatcher
White-bearded Flycatcher
The White-bearded Flycatcher is a species of bird in the Tyrannidae family. It is the only member of the genus Phelpsia. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela....
(Phelpsia inornatus), White-ringed Flycatcher
White-ringed Flycatcher
The White-ringed Flycatcher is a species of bird in the Tyrannidae family.It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, and Panama....
(Conopias albovittatus) and Lesser Kiskadee
Lesser Kiskadee
The Lesser Kiskadee is a species of bird in the Tyrannidae family.It is found in Argentina, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Venezuela....
(Pitangus/Philohydor lictor). In fact, except at close range these are all but indistinguishable from appearance alone. They and the two larger similar species mentioned above share much of their range. Though they all are apparently fairly close relatives, the group to which they seem to belong also includes species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
with rather different head-pattern, like the Grey-capped Flycatcher
Grey-capped Flycatcher
The Grey-capped Flycatcher, Myiozetetes granadensis, is a passerine bird, a member of the large tyrant flycatcher family.It breeds in cultivation, pasture, and open woodland with some trees from eastern Honduras south to northwestern Peru, northern Bolivia and western BrazilThe nest, built by the...
which also belongs to Myiozetetes
Myiozetetes
Myiozetetes is a small genus of passerine birds in the tyrant flycatcher family. The four to five species occur in tropical Central and South America...
.
Range and ecology
Social Flycatchers breed in plantations, pasture with some trees, and open woodland from northwestern MexicoMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
south to northeastern Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, southern Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and northwestern Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. It is a common and wide-ranging species and thus not considered threatened by the IUCN.
They like to perch openly in trees, several meters above ground. From such perches they will sally out for considerable distances to catch insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s in flight, to which purpose they utilize a range of aerobatic maneuvers. They also regularly hover and glean
Gleaning (birds)
Gleaning is a term for a feeding strategy by birds in which they catch invertebrate prey, mainly arthropods, by plucking them from foliage or the ground, from crevices such as rock faces and under the eaves of houses, or even, as in the case of ticks and lice, from living animals. This behavior is...
for prey and small berries
Berry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
– e.g. from Gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba), which they seek out and also utilize in human-modified habitat such as secondary forest
Secondary forest
A secondary forest is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a major disturbance such as fire, insect infestation, timber harvest or windthrow, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident...
or urban parks and gardens –, and will pick off prey from the ground and even enter shallow waters to feed on aquatic invertebrates, tadpole
Tadpole
A tadpole or polliwog is the wholly aquatic larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian, particularly that of a frog or toad.- Appellation :...
s and occasionally small fish. They were observed to forage peacefully alongside Common Marmoset
Common Marmoset
The common marmoset is a New World monkey. It originally lived on the Northeastern coast of Brazil, in the states of Piaui, Paraiba, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Alagoas and Bahia...
s (Callithrix jacchus) in the undergrowth, maybe even cooperating with the monkeys in flushing prey from hiding. But perhaps this behavior only occurs during the dry season
Dry season
The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...
, when fruits are scarcer; it has been noted that they do not join mixed-species feeding flock
Mixed-species feeding flock
A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species, that join each other and move together while foraging...
s very often
The nest, built by the female in a bush, tree or on a building, is a large roofed structure of stems and straw, which for protection is often built near a wasp
Wasp
The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...
, bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
or ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...
nest, or the nest of another tyrant flycatcher. The nest site is often near or over water. The typical clutch is two to four brown- or lilac-blotched cream or white eggs, laid between February and June.