Yellow-bellied Flyrobin
Cryptomicroeca flaviventris
Small mostly grayish songbird with an upright posture and short bill. Note bright yellow belly and small patch of whiter feathers on the throat. Typically found low in dense growth, preferring areas of native habitat including stunted forest and edges. Pleasant song a combination of higher-pitched wheezing whistled notes and lower chiming warbles.
Identification
The yellow-bellied robin is a medium-sized Australasian robin, 14–15 cm (5.5–5.9 in) in length and weighing around 12 g (0.42 oz). The plumage is similar to members of the genus Eopsaltria: dark olive-grey back, tail and wings, grey head and chest with a slightly lighter throat, and yellow belly and rump. The legs are grey.
Taxonomy
The yellow-bellied flyrobin was described in 1860 by the French ornithologists, Jules Verreaux and Oeillet des Murs, from a specimen collected in New Caledonia. They coined the binomial name Eopsaltria flavigastra. The English ornithologist, Richard Bowdler Sharpe, realised that the specific epithet was preoccupied, and in 1903 he proposed flaviventris as a replacement. The species was long considered one of the yellow robins of the genus Eopsaltria. However, a 2009 genetic study showed it to be nested within the flyrobin genus Microeca, and hence it was moved to Microeca, and its common name was changed from yellow-bellied robin to yellow-bellied flyrobin in the online list of world birds maintained by Frank Gill and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). A more comprehensive genetic study of the family Petroicidae, published in 2011, found that the yellow-bellied flyrobin was divergent from the other members of Microeca, and instead was sister to a clade containing the Microeca and the torrent flyrobin. The yellow-bellied flyrobin is now placed as the only species in the genus Cryptomicroeca that was introduced in 2012.
- Scientific name
- Cryptomicroeca flaviventris
- Authority
- (Sharpe, 1903)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Monarchidae
- Genus
- Cryptomicroeca
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Horornis ruficapilla
A small, cock-tailed warbler with a bright orange-rufous head. Gray below and olive-brown above with a rufous-tinged tail. Skulks low in thick undergrowth and bamboo of upland forest, locally to sea level. Song is a very loud whistle rising in volume. Call is a short “tsic-tsic.”
Black-bellied Antwren
Formicivora melanogaster
Small antbird with a long tail and distinctive plumage. The male is dark gray brown above and black below with an obvious white eyebrow, white wing bars, and a white-tipped tail. The female is brown above with a whitish throat and buff below. Found in the understory of deciduous forests and caatinga scrub where it occasionally follows mixed-species flocks. The song is a repetition of nasal “tjew” notes.
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Basileuterus rufifrons
Attractive, perky, long-tailed warbler widespread in foothills and highlands, locally in lowlands. Favors brushy and weedy areas adjacent to woodland and scrub. Usually in pairs or small groups which hop around low in brush with tails cocked. Note white eyebrow, rusty cap, and yellow bib. Birds in southeast Mexico and Belize are extensively yellow below. Listen for its buzzy trills and chips, usually given in a multi-parted series. Once considered conspecific with Chestnut-capped Warbler.
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