Bird Guide

Barred Becard vs Chestnut-crowned Becard

Barred Becard (Pachyramphus versicolor)

Barred Becard

Pachyramphus versicolor

Small16 gForest

The barred becard is 12 to 13 cm (4.7 to 5.1 in) long and weighs 14 to 17 g (0.49 to 0.60 oz). It is the smallest member of genus Pachyramphus. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a glossy black crown and nape and greenish yellow lores and eye-ring. Their face is also greenish yellow. Their upperparts are mostly glossy black with a slate gray rump and uppertail coverts. Their wings are black with white edges on the greater coverts and remiges. Their scapulars and lesser and median coverts are white with black edges. Their tail is slate gray with white edges on the feathers. Voice: The barred becard's song has been described as a "rising or rising-falling, accelerating series of thin, high whistles: wur wee WEE-WEE’WEE’WEE-WEE" and its calls as "thin, squeaky wsee notes in a chattered series".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Barred Becard
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call · Zamora-Chinchipe: camp on Ventanilla-Christopher Parson trail, Reserva Tapichalaca, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Ana Agreda, Aves y Conservación · Public domain
Chestnut-crowned Becard (Pachyramphus castaneus)

Chestnut-crowned Becard

Pachyramphus castaneus

Small20 gForest

The chestnut-crowned becard is about 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long and weighs about 17 g (0.60 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies P. c. castaneus have a dark chestnut-rufous crown with a scaly appearance, dusky lores, a pale buff-whitish line above the lores, a gray line above the eye that widens and extends around the nape, and pale cinnamon cheeks. Their upperparts are mostly cinnamon-rufous. Their wings are mostly dusky cinnamon with dusky rufous coverts and dusky flight feathers with light cinnamon-rufous edges. Their tail is cinnamon-rufous. Voice: The chestnut-crowned becard's song is a "simple series of 4-5 very high weeu--- notes without intervals". It is also described as "a series of soft, thin, casual, rather musical whistles, e.g. teeeuw-teeu-teeu or teeeer, tee, tee". Its call is "extr. high, slightly gliding up and down tuuit notes".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Chestnut-crowned Becard
Recorded by Maycon Gonçalves · Song · São Martinho da Serra, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil · CC BY 4.0
Photo: Ron Knight from Seaford, East Sussex, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Barred Becard and Chestnut-crowned Becard.