The sooty-headed tyrannulet (Phyllomyias griseiceps) is a species of bird in subfamily Elaeniinae of family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The International Ornithological Committee and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World treat the sooty-headed tyrannulet as monotypic. However, since 2019 the Clements taxonomy has assigned it four subspecies based on a study published in 2014.
This article follows the monotypic species model.
Sooty-headed tyrannulet, Copa Linga Lodge, Ecuador
Description
The sooty-headed tyrannulet is about 10 cm (3.9 in) long and weighs about 8 g (0.28 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a grayish to blackish crown and dull grayish olive nape, back, and rump. Their lores and supercilium are white with a dark stripe through their eye. Their lower face is grizzled. Their wings are dusky with narrow whitish edges to the inner flight feathers and the ends of the coverts. Their tail is dusky. Their throat is grayish white, their breast and flanks pale olive, and their belly bright yellow. They have a dark brown iris, a very small and rounded black bill, and black legs and feet.
Distribution and habitat
The sooty-headed tyrannulet has a highly disjunct distribution. The separate populations are found thus:
Extreme eastern Panama and slightly into northwestern Colombia
In the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia
In the Serranía del Perijá on the Colombia-Venezuela border
From extreme southwestern Colombia south through western Ecuador to Loja Province
From southern Napo Province in Ecuador south to central Peru
The valleys of the Cauca and Magdalena rivers in Colombia and into western and northern Venezuela
From eastern Venezuela east across Guyana and Suriname into French Guiana
Locally in southeastern Venezuela and northern Amazonian Brazil
