Foothill Elaenia

The foothill elaenia is 12 to 12.5 cm (4.7 to 4.9 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dark gray crown with a partially concealed white stripe along its middle. They have a mottled gray and white loral spot, eyering, and lower face. Their upperparts are olive green. Their wings are dusky with thin olive green edges on the primaries and pale yellow edges on the other flight feathers. Pale yellow tips on the wing coverts form three bars on the closed wing. Their tail is browner than the wings and the feathers have thin olive green edges. Voice: What are thought to be songs of the nominate subspecies of the foothill elaenia are "a rapid, descending trilled t'teerrr, and a longer, rising trilled t'teerrreeeeeee"; it also makes "a rising series, tew-tew-tew" which sometimes is extended into a trill. The song of subspecies M. o. coopmansi is similar but longer and faster-paced. That of M. o. incognita is unknown.