Mountain Elaenia

Mountain Elaenia
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Elaenia
Species:	E. frantzii
Binomial name
Elaenia frantzii Lawrence, 1865
Subspecies
Elaenia frantzii frantzii Elaenia frantzii ultima Elaenia frantzii pudica Elaenia frantzii browni

The Mountain Elaenia, Elaenia frantzii, is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It breeds in highlands from Guatemala to Colombia and western Venezuela. The scientific name celebrates the German physician and naturalist, Alexander von Frantzius.

This tyrant flycatcher is 14-15 cm long and weighs 17-20 g. The upperparts are dull olive, with a narrow white eye ring. The wings are dusky with narrow yellow feather edges and two off-white wing bars. The throat and breast are yellowish grey, becoming dull yellow on the belly. Sexes are similar, but young birds are browner above, paler below, and have brighter wing bars.

This is an inconspicuous species, with a slurred peeeeur call, longer than that of Mistletoe Tyrannulet, and a repetitive d’weet d’weet song.

The Mountain Elaenia breeds between 1200m and 2900m altitude in wet mountain forests, especially at the edges and in clearings, and in adjacent second growth, semi-open areas, or pastures with trees.It moves lower in winter, down to 600 m, and also appears to undergo seasonal movements.^[1]

It is solitary when not breeding. It perches on a shaded watchpoint from which it sallies forth to pick insects, spiders, and many berries and seeds from foliage or even the ground. All its food is taken in flight.

Its nest is a cup of mosses, liverworts and lichens, lined with plant fibres. It is built by the female 2-15 m high in a tree or bamboo. The two cinnamon-blotched whitish eggs are incubated by the female for 15-16 days to hatching.

Footnotes

1. ^ Hilty (2003), Strewe & Navarro (2004)

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Elaenia frantzii. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 22 September 2007.
• Hilty, Steven L. (2003): Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
• Stiles, F. Gary & Skutch, Alexander Frank (1989): A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Comistock, Ithaca. ISBN 0-8014-9600-4
• Strewe, Ralf & Navarro, Cristobal (2004): New and noteworthy records of birds from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region, north-eastern Colombia. Bull. B.O.C. 124(1): 38-51. PDF fulltext