The agile tit-tyrant (Uromyias agilis) is a species of bird in subfamily Elaeniinae of family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
Some late twentieth and early twentieth century authors merged genus Uromyias into Anairetes but by about 2012 Uromyias had been restored. The agile tit-tyrant shares genus Uromyias with the unstreaked tit-tyrant (U. agraphia) and the two form a superspecies.
The agile tit-tyrant is monotypic.
Description
The agile tit-tyrant is 12.5 to 13.5 cm (4.9 to 5.3 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a flattish black crest and a long tail. They have a brownish black crown, a wide white supercilium, black lores, and a wide dark brown stripe through the eye on a face that is otherwise finely streaked with black and white. Their upperparts are warm brown and heavily streaked with black. Their wings are dark dusky brown with thin whitish edges on the innermost flight feathers. Their tail is dusky with white edges on the outermost pair of feathers. Their throat is whitish with thin black streaks, their breast, flanks, and upper belly are pale yellow with many thin blackish streaks, and their lower belly and undertail coverts are unmarked pale yellow. Juveniles are like adults with the addition of two buffy wing bars. Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a stubby black bill with yellow at the base of the mandible, and dark gray legs and feet.
Distribution and habitat
The agile tit-tyrant has a disjunct distribution. It is found in the Andes of the western Venezuelan states of Mérida (state) and Táchira, in Colombia's Central and Eastern Andes, and in Ecuador 's Andes south to Cotopaxi Province on the west side and to northeastern Loja Province in the east. It inhabits cloudforest and elfin forest near treeline, where it strongly favors areas with pure or mixed stands of Chusquea bamboo. In elevation it ranges between 2,300 and 2,600 m (7,500 and 8,500 ft) in Venezuela, between...
