Tufted Flycatcher (Mitrephanes phaeocercus aurantiiventris)

29 January 2009, Savegre Mountain Hotel, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica I like the warm butterscotch color of this small, perky flycatcher. Vagrants have reached Arizona and Texas. It normally ranges in the highlands from Mexico to Ecuador where it is replaced by the similar but much duller Olive-tufted Flycatcher (Mitrephanes olivaceus, sometimes called just Olive Flycatcher) on the east slope of the Andes in Peru in Bolivia. Early authors lumped the two species but most modern authors split them. The Ecuador guide by Ridgly & Greenfield calls the present bird the Northern Tufted-Flycatcher but this suggestion has not yet been adopted by the AOU. It has also been called the Common Tufted-flycatcher. Four subspecies are generally recognized based mostly on color. M. p. aurantiiventris is confined to Costa Rica and adjacent Panama. It is one of the brighter races. South American birds are decidedly paler with yellow rather than cinnamon underparts. Panasonic DMC-LZ5 / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30X WA hand-held (no adapter)