Bird Guide

Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant vs White-browed 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
White-browed Chat-Tyrant (Ochthoeca leucophrys)

White-browed Chat-Tyrant

Ochthoeca leucophrys

Tiny13 gShrubland

The white-browed chat-tyrant is 14.5 to 15.5 cm (5.7 to 6.1 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies O. l. leucophrys have a dark gray to grayish brown crown, a wide white supercilium that begins at the lores and extends well past the eye, and a blackish "mask". Their upperparts are a slightly lighter gray to grayish brown than the crown with a slight cinnamon tinge on the lower back and rump. Their wings are a duskier gray with two faint cinnamon wing bars. Their tail is dusky with white outer webs on the outermost feathers. Voice: What is thought to be the white-browed chat-tyrant's song is "a squeaky chatter, usually in duet: wu-chew'widdu". Its calls are "a squeaky, rising-falling weeo and a higher weedee?". In Argentina it makes "a sharp keeew".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Facundo Chieffo · 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 White-browed Chat-Tyrant.