Chestnut-crowned Becard

Pachyramphus castaneus

Medium-sized becard found at the edges of humid forests, woodlands, and gallery forests where it tends to perches on exposed branches. It has a chestnut crown contrasting with a broad gray band around the eyes and a cinnamon face and underparts. Sexes similar. The song is a soft musical whistled “teeuw-teeu-teeu.”

Identification

Medium-sized becard found at the edges of humid forests, woodlands, and gallery forests where it tends to perches on exposed branches. It has a chestnut crown contrasting with a broad gray band around the eyes and a cinnamon face and underparts. Sexes similar. The song is a soft musical whistled “teeuw-teeu-teeu.”

Taxonomy

Scientific name
Pachyramphus castaneus
Authority
(Jardine & Selby, 1827)
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Tityridae
Genus
Pachyramphus

Range and habitat

The chestnut-crowned becard has two major ranges in South America: the Amazon Basin, mostly the south and center-west, and the Cerrado region of Brazil.<p>The Cerrado range is in southeastern South America and also covers large areas of coastal Brazil; the range goes from southern Northeast Region, Brazil to the Southeast region, and includes the eastern Center-West region. From northeast to southeast, the range extends about 2600 km.<p>The range in the Amazon Basin, (about 3200 km), extends through the center regions of northwest and southwest and avoids most highlands-headwater regions of the very midpoint of the Basin. One of two exceptions is the headwater-upperland bordering southeast Venezuela with western Roraima state of North Region, Brazil, (the Amazon Basin); this disjunct range is 300 km by 900 km. The second exception is Caribbean coastal northern Venezuela, a smaller disjunct range.<p>The Amazon Basin range in the west extends to the Andean foothills and is contiguous from southern Colombia south through all eastern Ecuador, all of eastern Amazonian Peru, and parts of Bolivia, especially the extreme north at the headwater tributaries of the Madeira River. The Madeira River in southwestern Amazonas state Brazil is one southerly range limit, and the Rio Negro is the northwestern Amazon range limit. In the southeast Basin the eastern limit is the lower fourth of the adjacent drainage, the Araguaia-Tocantins River, (the upper fourth being in the SE Brazil Cerrado population). In the southeast Basin, only the downstream half of the river systems are in the contiguous range, (the Tapajós and Xingu Rivers).

Migration
Resident species

Conservation

Population trend
stable

Photos

Distribution

Bird Calls

Other Birds

Iriomote Tit

Iriomote Tit

Sittiparus olivaceus

Reddish-brown songbird with a black crown and throat and olive-gray wings. Resident in broadleaf evergreen forests, especially in higher elevations, but poorly known. Endemic to Iriomote and Ishigaki Islands, in the southern Ryukyu Islands. Formerly considered conspecific with Varied Tit, and plumage intermediate between Varied Tit and Owston’s Tit, but neither has Iriomote’s olive wash on wings. Song resembles Japanese Tit, and nasal call recalls Varied Tit but drier.

Short-tailed Antthrush

Short-tailed Antthrush

Chamaeza campanisona

Plump terrestrial bird with a short cocked-tail and long legs. Walks quietly on the ground in humid forests where its shy nature and cryptic plumage make it difficult to spot. Olive-brown above with a prominent, but short white eyebrow and buffy streaking below. Several different subspecies occur throughout South America with variable patterning on the breast. The song is a melodious series of soft notes varying in length between subspecies and mostly given while perched above the ground.

Spotted Catbird

Spotted Catbird

Ailuroedus maculosus

Chunky rainforest bird with emerald green upperparts, black spot below the dark red eye, and green-olive underparts with extensive pale spotting. Inhabits the Wet Tropics of northern Queensland (Cairns region), thus does not overlap with similar Green Catbird. Forages mostly in middle and upper story of the rainforest. Compare female and juvenile Satin Bowerbird (with blue eye, darker bill). Spotted Catbird is well known for its characteristic catlike yowling call.

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