Bird Guide

White-tailed Tyrannulet vs White-throated Tyrannulet

White-tailed Tyrannulet (Mecocerculus poecilocercus)

White-tailed Tyrannulet

Mecocerculus poecilocercus

Tiny8 gForest

The white-tailed tyrannulet is about 11 cm (4.3 in) long and weighs 10 to 11 g (0.35 to 0.39 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a medium gray crown. They have a thin white supercilium and a faint blackish stripe through the eye on an otherwise whitish face. Their upperparts are mostly greenish olive with a bright greenish yellow rump and uppertail coverts. Their wings are dusky with pale yellow edges on the flight feathers. Their wing coverts have white to pale buff tips that show as two bars on the closed wing. Voice: The white-tailed tyrannulet's dawn song is "a high, lisping pseeee-psweet". Its day song is "a descending series of high, rising, sibilant whistles: PSEE pswee pswee psweet" that sometimes ends with "sharper pit notes".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the White-tailed Tyrannulet
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Song · Pichincha: Tandayapa ridge 3 km SSW Tandayapa, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Esteban Poveda · CC BY 4.0
White-throated Tyrannulet (Mecocerculus leucophrys)

White-throated Tyrannulet

Mecocerculus leucophrys

Tiny11 gForest

The white-throated tyrannulet is 11 to 14 cm (4.3 to 5.5 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies M. l. leucophrys have a dark olive-gray crown and nape. They have white lores and a thin white supercilium on an otherwise dusky face with some white on the ear coverts. Their upperparts are medium olive-gray. Their wings are brownish black with cinnamon-buff to yellowish buff edges and tips on the flight feathers. Their wing coverts have cinnamon-buff tips that show as two wide bars on the closed wing. Their tail is dusky brown. Voice: The white-throated tyrannulet's dawn song is "an excited-sounding 'ch'd'dik, ch'd'dik, ch'd'dik, chéw' " with some variations in emphasis and sometimes some "kee-keek" notes inserted. While foraging it often gives a "pit" or "pif" note.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the White-throated Tyrannulet
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call · Azuay: 5.5 km SW Molleturo, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Ron Knight from Seaford, East Sussex, United Kingdom · CC BY 2.0

Where you might meet both

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: White-tailed Tyrannulet and White-throated Tyrannulet.