Bird Guide

Mountain Elaenia vs White-crested Elaenia

Mountain Elaenia (Elaenia frantzii)

Mountain Elaenia

Elaenia frantzii

Small20 gForest

The mountain elaenia is 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long and weighs about 14 to 24 g (0.49 to 0.85 oz). It is a small to medium size elaenia with a rounded crest. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a brownish olive head with lighter cheeks, a thin very pale olive eyering, and a mostly hidden white patch on the crown. Their upperparts are grayish olive. Their wings are mostly dusky with pale olive or olive-yellow edges on the flight feathers. The tips of their wing coverts are yellowish olive and show as two bars on the closed wing. Voice: The northern and southern pairs of subspecies of the mountain elaenia have somewhat different vocalizations, which is part of the evidence hinting that they are separate species. The dawn song of the northern pair is "an endless repetition of an overslurred whistle followed by a rising burry part and a higher-pitched second overslurred note, all three notes interconnected without a clear pause".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Mountain Elaenia
Recorded by JUAN ANTONIO ALONSO DE JUAN · Call · Vereda La Máquina, Pacho, Cundinamarca, Colombia · CC BY 4.0
Photo: gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K · CC BY 2.0
White-crested Elaenia (Elaenia albiceps)

White-crested Elaenia

Elaenia albiceps

Small16 gForest

The white-crested elaenia is 13.5 to 15 cm (5.3 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 12.5 to 24.2 g (0.44 to 0.85 oz). It is a small to medium size elaenia with a small bushy crest. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies E. a. albiceps have a mostly dull olive to olive-gray head with a partially hidden white or creamy white stripe in the middle of the crest. They have whitish lores and eyering. Their upperparts are dull olive to olive-gray. Their wings are dusky with white or whitish tips on the coverts that show as two wing bars. Voice: The white-crested elaenia's vocalizations apparently differ somewhat among the subspecies, though not all have been studied in detail. The dawn song of E. a. griseigularis is "a series of deep, burry, falling-rising djeewee notes interspersed with occasional per'brr'djwee notes" and its calls are "a low, rich, modulated djur and a longer, descending djeeer". The dawn song of E. a.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the White-crested Elaenia
Recorded by steve · Call · Natales (near Puerto Prat), Última Esperanza, Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena, Chile · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Fornés Sebastián Fornés · CC BY 4.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Mountain Elaenia and White-crested Elaenia.