Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant

Lophotriccus pileatus

Least Concern · IUCN Red List

LCLeast ConcernInvertebratesForestDomed nestTiny · 7 g

What the Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant sounds like

Sonogram of the Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by JUAN ANTONIO ALONSO DE JUAN · Call · Vereda La Máquina, Pacho, Cundinamarca, Colombia · CC BY 4.0 · via xeno-canto
Sonogram of the Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call · Zamora-Chinchipe: Chinapinza at 1700 m, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via xeno-canto
Sonogram of the Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call, calls · Napo: 3 km NW Guagua Sumaco, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via xeno-canto

ID tip

The scale-crested pygmy tyrant is 8 to 10 cm (3.1 to 3.9 in) long and weighs about 7 to 8 g (0.25 to 0.28 oz). It has long crown feathers that form the eponymous crest and that it sometimes erects and fans. Females have a smaller crest than males but the sexes otherwise have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies L. p. pileatus have a black crest with rufous edges on the feathers. They have whitish lores on an otherwise brownish face. Their back, rump, and uppertail coverts are olive. Voice: The scale-crested pygmy tyrant's main vocalization is a very loud trill that differs somewhat geographically. It has been written as "tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr" and "trrrrrreét", "dzzeeer-dzeer-dzeer", and "cre'e'e'e'e, k'e'e'e'e". It also makes "a series of sharp "preek" notes, sometimes widely spaced".

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is March, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 7 countries with regular records, and 1 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Recorded as a rare visitor in Honduras.

About the Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant

The scale-crested pygmy tyrant is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, native to the American Cordillera.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Side by side: Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant vs Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet · Cinnamon Flycatcher vs Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant · Helmeted Pygmy Tyrant vs Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant · Double-banded Pygmy Tyrant vs Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant

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