Dark-faced Ground Tyrant vs Spot-billed Ground Tyrant

Dark-faced Ground Tyrant

Muscisaxicola maclovianus

Small24 gGrassland

The dark-faced ground tyrant is 15 to 16.5 cm (5.9 to 6.5 in) long. The two subspecies and both sexes have the same plumage, though subspecies M. m. mentalis is significantly smaller than the nominate. Adults have a blackish forehead, lores, and cheeks and a dull chestnut-brown crown. Their upperparts are mostly dark brown to smoky brown with a black lower rump. Their wings are a duskier brown than the upperparts. Their tail is black with whitish edges on the outer webs of the outermost feathers. Their throat and breast are gray and their belly and crissum white. Voice: As of April 2025 xeno-canto had six recordings of dark-faced ground tyrant vocalizations; the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library had 18 with some overlap between the two. The species' song is "reported as a warbling series of notes". During the flight display males call "a discreet zilip". Its alarm calls include "a series of loud cheep and rapid tu or chee-tú" notes.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Yann · CC BY 2.0

Spot-billed Ground Tyrant

Muscisaxicola maculirostris

Tiny14 gShrubland

The spot-billed ground tyrant is 14 to 15.5 cm (5.5 to 6.1 in) long and weighs 11 to 17 g (0.39 to 0.60 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have an olive-brown crown, a whitish to buffy white supercilium and spot above their lores, a dusky line through the eye, and an olive to gray patch on the ear coverts on an otherwise whitish to dusky face. Their nape and back are olive-brown. Their wing coverts are olive-brown with buff to rufous edges. Their remiges are dusky to brownish with thin pale rufous edges. Voice: The spot-billed ground tyrant is the most vocal species in its genus. Males sing during the flight display, "a prolonged series of Pit notes accelerating slightly into a higher-pitched flourish ending with two short, clear whistles: Pi-tew!". It also makes separate pit, pip, and pew calls.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Originally hogsas from Flickr · CC BY 2.0

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Dark-faced Ground Tyrant and Spot-billed Ground Tyrant.