The Social Flycatcher, Myiozetetes similis, is a medium-sized tropical species of bird native to Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. This species of bird is a vagrant species of the United States. In some places it is only found at specific altitudes, for example, Ecuador (below1,400 meters), Colombia (below 900 meters) and Venezuela (1,500m north of Orinoco, and 500m south of Orinoco) (Phelan). M. similis lives in streams and forest edges. However, they are not found in deep forests because of their preference for shrubby areas. They tend to live in cultivated areas as well, and have adapted to suburban settings (Cracraft, 1967; Phelan).
The Social Flycatcher, Myiozetetes similis, is a medium-sized tropical species of bird native to Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. This species of bird is a vagrant species of the United States. In some places it is only found at specific altitudes, for example, Ecuador (below1,400 meters), Colombia (below 900 meters) and Venezuela (1,500m north of Orinoco, and 500m south of Orinoco) (Phelan). M. similis lives in streams and forest edges. However, they are not found in deep forests because of their preference for shrubby areas. They tend to live in cultivated areas as well, and have adapted to suburban settings (Cracraft, 1967; Phelan).
M. similis are typically 16.5 – 17 centimeters long (Phelan). They have an olive-green-colored upperbody and tail, and wings that are dark brown and lined with a pale gray color. Its belly is bright yellow, and it has a white throat. The head is black with a white stripe above its eye. It has a short, decurved beak. Juveniles have a grayish brown upperbody, and a small crown, or no crown at all (Ekstrom & Butchart). They feed on fruit, arthropods, insects, tadpoles, small berries, and other localized food sources (Phelan; Cracraft, 1967; Sherry, 1985). M. similis take high perch in the trees, and tend to catch their prey above their perch (Cracraft, 1967; Bencke, 2010). Their high perch allows them a wide field of view of flying prey, but they also forage food off of the ground. They prefer short flights for foraging, however, some flights of 40 to 50 feet are observed (Cracraft, 1967). Their ground foraging is done in small hops, described as the “sally strike” and “sally glide”. Foraging is done in pairs and individually.
M. similis tend to live in small social groups during the breeding season, and sometimes live in large interspecific groups (Phelan). M. similis are very active, physically and vocally, described as having a “constant chatter” (Cracraft, 1967; Bencke, 2010). They are erratic and exhibit fast fluttering wings that make them appear to be nervous or frightened (Cracraft, 1967). Their calls are loud screams and rapid twittering of one to two sharp notes before a trill described as “tseep, brit-buweeerr” or a piercing “chi-wiww”. Their harsh calls are described as, “kreeoouw” with chattered “ti-ti-ti-tichew” (Ekstrom & Butchart). Their audible wing movements work with their calls in attracting mates. Once a mate pair has been established, males and females fly together to construct their nests, with both of them carrying supplies and assembling the nest as a pair (Cracraft, 1967). They construct their nest out of soft materials, like dried grass, straw, twigs, cotton, and pieces of plastic in obvious, non-secluded places like over water and man-made objects (Pettingill, 1942; Phelan). The entrance to the nest is always on the side (Pettingill, 1942). Egg-laying takes place from March through April. The eggs are a creamy or pink color. Pairs raise two to four eggs in one brood, and only one brood per year. However, pairs may lay up to five nests in order to encounter for lost offspring from predation the Keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), Gray hawk (Buteo nitidus), and Basilisk lizard (Basiliscus basiliscus) (Phelan). However, despite their predators, M. similis are a stable population and are of least concern by IUCN.
The social flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis) is a passerine bird from the Americas, a member of the large tyrant flycatcher family (Tyrannidae).
It is sometimes split into two species with the social flycatcher, Myiozetetes texensis, from Costa Rica northwards to Mexico and the vermilion-crowned flycatcher, M. similis proper, from southwest Costa Rica across South America.
In appearance, the social flycatcher resembles a smaller boat-billed flycatcher or great kiskadee. The adult is 16–18 cm (6.3–7.1 in) long and weighs 24–27 g (0.85–0.95 oz). The head is dark grey with a strong white eyestripe and a usually concealed orange to vermilion crown stripe. The upperparts are olive-brown, and the wings and tail are brown with only faint rufous fringes. The underparts are yellow and the throat is white. Young birds have a paler eye mask, reduced crown stripe, and have chestnut fringes to the wing and tail feathers. The call is a sharp peeurrr and the dawn song is a chips-k’-cheery.
As the specific epithet similis (Latin for "the similar one") indicates, this species looks much like its closest living relative the rusty-margined flycatcher (Myiozetetes cayanensis), and also like the white-bearded flycatcher (Phelpsia inornatus), white-ringed flycatcher (Conopias albovittatus) and lesser kiskadee (Pitangus/Philohydor lictor). In fact, except at close range, these are all but indistinguishable from appearance alone. They and the two larger similar species mentioned above share much of their range. Though they all are apparently fairly close relatives, the group to which they seem to belong also includes species with rather different head-pattern, like the grey-capped flycatcher which also belongs to Myiozetetes.
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M. s. texensis
Belize
M. s. columbianus
Corcovado, Costa Rica
M. s. columbianus
Darién National Park, Panama
M. s. pallidiventris
Brazil
Social flycatchers breed in plantations, pasture with some trees, and open woodland from northwestern Mexico south to northeastern Peru, southern Brazil and northwestern Argentina. It is a common and wide-ranging species and thus not considered threatened by the IUCN.[1]
They like to perch openly in trees, several meters above ground. From such perches they will sally out for considerable distances to catch insects in flight, to which purpose they utilize a range of aerobatic maneuvers. They also regularly hover and glean for prey and small berries—e.g. from gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba), which they seek out and also utilize in human-modified habitat such as secondary forest or urban parks and gardens—and will pick off prey from the ground and even enter shallow waters to feed on aquatic invertebrates, tadpoles and occasionally small fish. They have been observed to forage peacefully alongside common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) in the undergrowth, maybe even cooperating with the monkeys in flushing prey from hiding. Perhaps this behavior only occurs during the dry season, when fruits are scarcer; it has been noted that they do not join mixed-species feeding flocks very often.[2][3][4][5]
The nest, built by the female in a bush, tree or on a building, is a large roofed structure of stems and straw, which for protection is often built near a wasp, bee or ant nest, or the nest of another tyrant flycatcher. The nest site is often near or over water. The typical clutch is two to four brown- or lilac-blotched cream or white eggs, laid between February and June.
The social flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis) is a passerine bird from the Americas, a member of the large tyrant flycatcher family (Tyrannidae).
It is sometimes split into two species with the social flycatcher, Myiozetetes texensis, from Costa Rica northwards to Mexico and the vermilion-crowned flycatcher, M. similis proper, from southwest Costa Rica across South America.
