Masked Water Tyrant vs Pied Water Tyrant

Masked Water Tyrant

Fluvicola nengeta

Small21 gWetland

The masked water tyrant is 14.5 to 15 cm (5.7 to 5.9 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults are mostly white. They have a black stripe through the eye (the eponymous mask), a brownish gray tinge to the back, black wings, and a black tail with white feather tips. They have entirely white underparts. Subspecies F. n. atripennis has blacker wings than the nominate with white fringes on the tertials; the amount of white is variable. Both subspecies have a dark iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet. Voice: The masked water tyrant's call in Brazil is a "high, sharp peep". In Ecuador it is described as "a distinctive sharp kirt!" that is sometimes doubled and often given in flight. "Pairs sometimes chatter together." The species' song is "a repeated, soft dewdelewdel-dewdel".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call, disturbance call · Manabí: Río Ayampe, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Gab Buffo · CC BY 4.0

Pied Water Tyrant

Fluvicola pica

Tiny12 gWetland

The pied water tyrant is 12.5 to 13.5 cm (4.9 to 5.3 in) long and weighs 11 to 16 g (0.39 to 0.56 oz). Both sexes have prominent rictal bristles. Adult males are mostly white. They have a black hindcrown and nape, a mottled black and white back, black wings with small white tips on the tertials, and a black tail with small white tips. They have entirely white underparts. Females have brownish mixed with the black on the hindcrown, nape, and back. Both sexes have a dark iris, a sharply hooked black bill, and black legs and feet. Voice: What is thought to be the pied water tyrant's song is "a slightly buzzy choo-wer over and over". Its calls include "a short, nasal dreéeap! a soft pic like a bubble bursting". The dreéeap! call is usually made at dawn or dusk, and the bird sometimes jumps straight up as high as 1 m (3 ft) during it.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Gonzalo Roget · CC BY 4.0

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Masked Water Tyrant and Pied Water Tyrant.