Sooty-headed tyrannulet

Phyllomyias griseiceps

Photo by Leif Gabrielsen (iGoTerra)

Common name:
sooty-headed tyrannulet (en); piolhinho-de-cbeça-cinza (pt); tyranneau nain (fr); mosquerito cabecigrís (es); rußkappen-kleintyrann (de)

Taxonomy:
Order Passeriformes
Family Tyrannidae

Range:
This species is patchily distributed from eastern Panama, through Venezuela and Colombia, east into Guyana and extreme northern Brazil, and south through Ecuador into central Peru.

Size:
These birds are 10 cm long and weigh 8 g.

Habitat:
The sooty-headed tyrannulet is mostly found in moist tropical forests, particularly along the edges of humid tropical and upper tropical evergreen forest, also using dry tropical forests, second growths and plantation. They occur from sea level up to an altitude of 1.800 m.

Diet:
They feed mainly on insects and other arthropods, but also take some small fruits and berries.

Breeding:
Sooty-headed tyrannulets are known to breed in February, but their overall phenology has not been described. They nest in a small cup covered in lichen, located high up in a tree, in one case 13 m above the ground. There is no further information regarding the reproduction of this species.

Conservation:
IUCN status - LC (Least Concern)
This species has a large breeding range and is described as fairly common but patchily distributed. The sooty-headed tyrannulet is suspected to lose 14% of suitable habitat within its range over the next decade, based on a model of Amazonian deforestation, so it is suspected to suffer a small decline in the near future.