Yellow-olive flatbill

Tolmomyias sulphurescens

Photo by Dario Sanches (Wikipedia)

Common name:
yellow-olive flatbill (en); bico-chato-de-orelha-preta (pt); platyrhynque jaune-olive (fr); picoplano sulfuroso (es); olivscheitel-breitschnabeltyrann (de)

Taxonomy:
Order Passeriformes
Family Tyrannidae

Range:
This species is found from southern Mexico down to Bolivia, south-eastern Brazil and northern Argentina. West of the Andes range they are only found in western Colombia and western Ecuador.

Size:
These birds are 12,5-14 cm long and weigh 14-15 g.

Habitat:
The yellow-olive flatbill is found in dry savannas and forests, moist tropical forests, along rivers and streams, second growths and plantations. They are present from sea level up to an altitude of 2.100 m.

Diet:
They typically forage by sallying out from a perch to catch insects in flight or from foliage, taking bees, ants and bugs. They also eat berries.

Breeding:
Yellow-olive flatbills breed in April-January. The nest is a hanging ball with a side entrance, made of fungal rhizomorphs and rootlets, placed hanging from a tree branch 1,5-11 m above the ground. There the female lays 2-4 white or cream-coloured eggs, sometimes with small cinnamon spots, which she mostly incubates for about 17-20 days. The chicks fledge 22-24 days after hatching.

Conservation:
IUCN status - LC (Least Concern)
This species has an extremely large breeding range and the global population is estimated at 5-50 million individuals. The yellow-olive flatbill is tolerant of converted habitats and its population is thus suspected to be stable.