The slaty-backed chat-tyrant or chestnut-bellied chat-tyrant (Ochthoeca cinnamomeiventris) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The slaty-backed chat-tyrant was formally described in 1843 as Muscicapa cinnamomeiventris, erroneously placing it in the Old World flycatcher family. It was eventually moved to genus Ochthoeca and for a time it, the maroon-belted chat-tyrant (O. thoracica) and the blackish chat-tyrant (O. nigrita) were considered conspecific. A study published in 1998 suggested that each of them should be raised to full species level. By 2006 the IOC had recognized the slaty-backed chat-tyrant as a species. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) recognized it in 2016 and the Clements taxonomy in 2022. However, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society retains the blackish chat-tyrant as a subspecies of the slaty-backed.
The slaty-backed chat-tyrant is monotypic.
Description
The slaty-backed chat-tyrant is 12 to 13 cm (4.7 to 5.1 in) long and weighs 11 to 13 g (0.39 to 0.46 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a dark slaty gray head with a white supercilium. Their upperparts and tail are dark slaty gray to blackish. Their wings are slightly browner than the back. Their breast and belly are deep dark chestnut or reddish brown, their flanks dark gray, and their vent and the middle of their lower belly are buffy white. They have a dark brown or blackish iris, a short, thin, black bill, and blackish to dark dusky gray legs and feet.
Distribution and habitat
The slaty-backed chat-tyrant is found from Táchira in far western Venezuela south through all three ranges of the Colombian Andes, continuing in Ecuador on the western Andean slope to Cotopaxi Province and on the eastern slope for the length of the country and into northern Peru as far as the Marañón River. It primarily...
