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Summary

The little ground tyrant (Syrtidicola fluviatilis) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, possibly in Colombia, and as a vagrant in Ecuador.

Taxonomy and systematics

The little ground tyrant was originally described as Muscisaxicola fluviatilis. A genetic study published in 2020 found that it was deeply divergent from other members of Muscisaxicola and was instead sister to the yellow-browed tyrant (Satrapa icterophrys). During 2021 the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC), the IOC, and the Clements taxonomy therefore moved the little ground tyrant to the newly erected genus Syrtidicola. However, as of December 2024 BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World retains the species in genus Muscisaxicola.

The little ground tyrant is the only member of genus Syrtidicola and has no subspecies.

Description

The little ground tyrant is 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a pale buffy supercilium and line above their lores. The rest of their face and their crown, nape, and back are grayish sandy brown. Their wings are dusky with very thin pale grayish cinnamon edges on the inner remiges and small buffy tips on the coverts that sometimes show as two wing bars. Their tail is black with white outer webs on the outer feathers. Their throat and breast are buffy white and their belly almost white. They have a dark brown iris, a black bill with a pinkish yellow or orange-yellow base to the mandible, and blackish legs and feet.

Distribution and habitat

The little ground tyrant is found in Peru from the Marañón River to the Inambari River and east into Amazonian Brazil to the upper Madeira River region. Its range extends south through eastern Peru and across northern Bolivia well into Brazil's Mato Grosso state. It has occurred as a vagrant in northeastern and far southern Ecuador. It is "at most very local" in eastern Colombia; the...