Elaenia is a genus of passerine birds in the tyrant flycatcher family which occur in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Except by voice, specific identification is often difficult since many species are very similar. They are also known by the common name elaenia, which they share with the similar tyrant flycatchers of the genus Myiopagis.
Elaenia flycatchers are typically brownish, greyish or olive above, and off-white and/or pale yellow on the belly, with a white or pale yellowish eye-ring of variable strength and two or three wing bars. Some species show a crest; often with a semi-concealed white patch/streak.
Taxonomy
The genus Elaenia was introduced by the Swedish zoologist Carl Jakob Sundevall in 1836. The type species was subsequently designated as the yellow-bellied elaenia. The name of the genus is from the Ancient Greek ελαινεος elaineos "of olive-oil" or "oleaginous".
The genus contains 22 species:
Image
Scientific name
Common name
Distribution
Yellow-bellied elaenia
Elaenia flavogaster
Central and South America as far as northern Argentina, and on Trinidad and Tobago.
Caribbean elaenia
Elaenia martinica
West Indies and parts of Central America.
Large elaenia
Elaenia spectabilis
western Amazonia to eastern Brazil and central Bolivia.
Noronha elaenia
Elaenia ridleyana
Fernando de Noronha
White-crested elaenia
Elaenia albiceps
Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and northernmost Chile.
Small-billed elaenia
Elaenia parvirostris
Paraguay and neighbouring regions winters to northern half of South America
Olivaceous elaenia
Elaenia mesoleuca
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Slaty elaenia
Elaenia strepera
western Amazon Basin, Colombia and Venezuela.
Mottle-backed elaenia
Elaenia gigas
Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Brownish elaenia
Elaenia pelzelni
Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia.
Plain-crested elaenia
Elaenia cristata
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru,...
