Yellow-bellied elaenia

Yellow-bellied elaenia
At Registro, São Paulo State, Brazil
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Elaenia
Species:	E. flavogaster
Binomial name
Elaenia flavogaster (Thunberg, 1822)
Subspecies
see text

The yellow-bellied elaenia (Elaenia flavogaster) is a small bird in subfamily Elaeniinae of family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Mexico, in every Central American country, in every mainland South American country except Chile, on Trinidad and Tobago, and on several islands in the Lesser Antilles.^[2][3]

Taxomomy and systematics

The yellow-bellied elaenia has these four subspecies:^[2]

• E. f. subpagana Sclater, PL, 1860
• E. f. pallididorsalis Aldrich, 1937
• E. f. flavogaster (Thunberg, 1822)
• E. f. semipagana Sclater, PL, 1862

In the mid twentieth century at least one author treated the yellow-bellied elaenia and the large elaenia (E. spectabilis) as conspecific.^[4][5]

Anton, Panama

Description

The yellow-bellied elaenia is 15 to 17 cm (5.9 to 6.7 in) long and weighs 21 to 29 g (0.74 to 1.0 oz). It is medium-sized, has a small head, and a bushy crest. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies E. f. flavogaster have a brownish olive crown with a partially concealed white stripe in the middle of the crest. They have whitish lores and a faint whitish eyering on an othewise pale brownish olive face. Their upperparts are brownish olive. Their wings are slightly duskier than the back with yellowish white edges on the flight feathers and tips on the coverts; the latter show as two wing bars. Their tail is also slightly duskier than the back. Their throat is pale gray, their breast olive gray, and their belly yellow to pale yellow to whitish.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][excessive citations]}

Subspecies E. f. subpagana has browner olive upperparts and yellower underparts than the nominate. E. f. pallididorsalis is overall grayer and has slightly greener upperparts than the nominate. E. f. semipagana is paler overall than the nominate, with a grayer face, less white on the crest, a whiter throat, and a paler belly. Both sexes of all subspecies have a dark brown iris, a black bill with a paler base to the mandible, and black legs and feet.^{[5][12][13][14][6][7][15][excessive citations]}

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of the yellow-bellied elaenia are found thus:^{[2][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][excessive citations]}

• E. f. subpagana: from southern Veracruz and the Yucatán Peninsula in southeastern Mexico south through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua into Costa Rica; also on Isla Mujeres off Quintana Roo, Mexico, and Coiba Island, Panama
• E. f. pallididorsalis: Panama and adjacent islands except Coiba
• E. f. flavogaster: the northern half of Colombia; most of Venezuela including Margarita and Patos islands; Trinidad; Tobago; St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada in the Lesser Antilles; the Guianas; Brazil except western and central Amazonas; southeastern Peru; the northern half of Bolivia; eastern Paraguay; and northeastern and northwestern Argentina (and also as a vagrant to Uruguay^[3])
• E. f. semipagana: extreme southwestern Colombia, Ecuador west of the Andes including Puná Island, Tumbes Department in extreme northwestern Peru, and intermittently through Peru on the east side of the Andes

The yellow-bellied elaenia inhabits a variety of landscapes. They span from arid to humid and nearly all are at most lightly wooded. It shuns dense forest except at its edges. Its habitats include savanna, scrublands, semi-open woodlands, secondary forest, brushy areas along watercourses, clearings with scattered trees, suburban parks with trees, and gardens. In elevation it reaches 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in Mexico, 1,700 m (5,600 ft) in northern Central America, 2,200 m (7,200 ft) in Costa Rica, 2,400 m (7,900 ft) in Colombia, 1,300 m (4,300 ft) in Ecuador, 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Peru, 1,750 m (5,700 ft) in Venezuela, and 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Brazil.^{[2][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][excessive citations]}

Behavior

Movement

The yellow-bellied elaenia is a year-round resident in almost all of its range. Most of the population of Veracruz and Oaxaca in Mexico move south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in winter.^[5][16]

Feeding

The yellow-bellied elaenia feeds on insects and berries. Though it usually forages singly or in pairs, several may gather in a fruiting tree. It forages mostly in the lower to middle levels of its habitat. It captures prey and plucks fruit by gleaning while perched and while hovering and with aerial sallies. It occasionally joins mixed-species feeding flocks.^{[5][8][13][14][17][18][excessive citations]}

Breeding

The yellow-bellied elaenia's breeding season varies geographically, but with most of them being within the span of February to September. Breeding activity has been noted on Trinidad and Tobago in November and December though most breeding there occurs between April and June. Its nest is a cup made of moss and grass with lichens and bark on the outside and lined with feathers. It is typically placed in a fork of a small branch. The usual clutch is two eggs though clutches of one and three have been noted. The eggs are pinkish white with chestnut and gray markings. The female alone incubates the clutch. The incubation period is about 16 days and fledging occurs 15 to 17 days after hatch. Both parents provision nestlings.^[5][8] Predation of nests by the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) has been observed.^[19]

Vocalization

The yellow-bellied elaenia's dawn song has been rendered as "trr-dyeéuw, trr-trreeenh-weeeuw" or "we-do, we-do".^[5] Other renderings are "a series of burry teeotree or tee-tree notes interspersed with an occasional wurrTREE"^[7] and "a leisurely and buzzy spud-deeer, spud-deer-dzz, spud-deer... over and over"^[8]. its calls include a "hoarse 'breeer', rising and then falling" and a "repeated 'wreek-kreeup' with hoarse or burry quality".^[5]

Status

The IUCN has assessed the yellow-bellied elaenia as being of Least Concern. It has an extremely large range; its estimated population of at least five million mature individuals is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified.^[1] It is considered fairly common to common in most of its range though uncommon on the Pacific slope of northern Central America and rare in northwesternmost Costa Rica.^[5][13][14] It occurs in a large number of protected areas both public and private. Its "[p]reference for more open woodland and widespread tolerance of converted habitats, combined with large range, suggest that this species is reasonably secure".^[5]

References

1. BirdLife International (2021). "Yellow-bellied Elaenia Elaenia flavogaster". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021: e.T22699262A138103607. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T22699262A138103607.en. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
2. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Tyrant flycatchers". IOC World Bird List. v 14.2. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
3. Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 27 July 2024. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved July 28, 2024
4. Olrog, C. 1963. Lista y distribución de las aves argentinas. Opera Lilloana No. 9.
5. Hosner, P. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Yellow-bellied Elaenia (Elaenia flavogaster), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.yebela1.01 retrieved September 25, 2024
6. McMullan, Miles; Donegan, Thomas M.; Quevedo, Alonso (2010). Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Bogotá: Fundación ProAves. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-9827615-0-2.
7. Schulenberg, T.S.; Stotz, D.F.; Lane, D.F.; O'Neill, J.P.; Parker, T.A. III (2010). Birds of Peru. Princeton Field Guides (revised and updated ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 410. ISBN 978-0691130231.
8. Hilty, Steven L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela (second ed.). Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 571.
9. van Perlo, Ber (2009). A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 293–294. ISBN 978-0-19-530155-7.
10. de la Peña, Martín R.; Rumboll, Maurice (2001). Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica. Princeton Illustrated Checklists. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. Plate 70, map 70.13. ISBN 0691090351.
11. Raffaele, Herbert; Wiley, James; Garrido, Orlando; Keith, Allan; Rafaele, Janice (2003). Birds of the West Indies. Princeton Field Guides. Princeton University Press. p. 122. ISBN 0-691-11319-X.
12. vanPerlo, Ber (2006). Birds of Mexico and Central America. Princeton Illustrated Checklists. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. Plate 65, map 65.5. ISBN 0691120706.
13. Fagan, Jesse; Komar, Oliver (2016). Field Guide to Birds of Northern Central America. Peterson Field Guides. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 248–249. ISBN 978-0-544-37326-6.
14. Garrigues, Richard; Dean, Robert (2007). The Birds of Costa Rica. Ithaca: Zona Tropical/Comstock/Cornell University Press. pp. 192–193. ISBN 978-0-8014-7373-9.
15. Ridgely, Robert S.; Greenfield, Paul J. (2001). The Birds of Ecuador: Field Guide. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 464. ISBN 978-0-8014-8721-7.
16. Check-list of North American Birds (7th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Ornithologists' Union. 1998. p. 377.
17. de A. Gabriel, Vagner; Pizo, Marco A. (2005). "Foraging behavior of tyrant flycatchers (Aves, Tyrannidae) in Brazil" (PDF). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia (in English and Portuguese). 22 (4): 1072–1077. doi:10.1590/S0101-81752005000400036.
18. Machado, C.G. (1999). "A composição dos bandos mistos de aves na Mata Atlântica da Serra de Paranapiacaba, no sudeste brasileiro" [Mixed flocks of birds in Atlantic Rain Forest in Serra de Paranapiacaba, southeastern Brazil] (PDF). Revista Brasileira de Biologia (in Portuguese and English). 59 (1): 75–85. doi:10.1590/S0034-71081999000100010.
19. de Lyra-Neves, Rachel M.; Oliveira, Maria A.B.; Telino-Júnior, Wallace R.; dos Santos, Ednilza M. (2007). "Comportamentos interespecíficos entre Callithrix jacchus (Linnaeus) (Primates, Callitrichidae) e algumas aves de Mata Atlântica, Pernambuco, Brasil" [Interspecific behaviour between Callithrix jacchus (Linnaeus) (Callitrichidae, Primates) and some birds of the Atlantic forest, Pernanbuco State, Brazil] (PDF). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia (in Portuguese and English). 24 (3): 709–716. doi:10.1590/S0101-81752007000300022.

Further reading

• Skutch, Alexander F. (1960). "Yellow-bellied Elaenia" (PDF). Life Histories of Central American Birds II. Pacific Coast Avifauna, Number 34. Berkeley, California: Cooper Ornithological Society. pp. 287–306.

External links

• BirdLife species factsheet for Elaenia flavogaster
• Yellow-bellied elaenia photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
• Yellow-bellied elaenia Stamps^[usurped] from Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname at bird-stamps.org^[usurped]