Bird Guide

Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant vs Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant

Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant (Ochthoeca fumicolor)

Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant

Ochthoeca fumicolor

Small17 gGrassland

The brown-backed chat-tyrant is 14.5 to 16 cm (5.7 to 6.3 in) long and weighs 16 to 19 g (0.56 to 0.67 oz). The sexes have much the same plumage though females have somewhat paler and duller underparts than males. Adults of the nominate subspecies O. f. fumicolor have a warm brown crown and wide whitish supercilium that begins at the lores and becomes somewhat ochraceous past the eye. The rest of their face is grayish. Their upperparts are rufescent brown that becomes a rufous brown on the rump. Their wings are dusky or blackish with two prominent rufous wing bars. Voice: The brown-backed chat-tyrant usually sings from a perch but occasionally while hidden. Its song in Venezuela is described as "as a fast, rhythmic duet, plee, plít'ter'tew, plít'ter'téw..." and in Peru as "a weak, squeaky chatter, often in duet, of tsi'wit and tee notes". Its dawn song in Ecuador is "a fast chattered keé-ke-de keé-ke-de keé-kedu-keéekeé-ke-du-keé".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call · Chimborazo: w-slope Loma Totol, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Frank Dietze · CC BY 4.0
Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant (Ochthoeca rufipectoralis)

Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant

Ochthoeca rufipectoralis

Tiny10 gForest

The rufous-breasted chat-tyrant is 12.5 to 14 cm (4.9 to 5.5 in) long and weighs about 13 g (0.46 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies O. r. rufipectoralis have a sooty brown head with white above the bill that extends into a long wide white supercilium. Their upperparts are brown to sooty brown. Their wings are blackish with faint rufous or cinnamon-buff edges on the secondaries and tertials. Their tail is blackish with thin white edges on the outermost feathers. Voice: The rufous-breasted chat-tyrant's day song differs somewhat among the subspecies. The nominate subspecies' is "a high buzzy phrased followed by a buzzy whistle, in series: tsi'jiot tzee...tsi'jit tzee.... In Colombia it is "an abrupt ch-brrr, ch-brrr, ch-brrr".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call, calls · Azuay: Cañayacu 7 km NNE Chaucha, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: sandyespinoza · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

Learn this pair in the BeakBrain App

Photo and call practice. Coming soon to iPhone and Android.

Play today's Daily Bird

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant and Rufous-breasted Chat-Tyrant.