Appearance

Flammulated Flycatcher is a medium large, slender bodied flycatcher with drab plumage that is primarily olive to gray brown above, with a pale gray breast and pale yellow belly. Flammulated Flycatcher superficially resembles a small Myiarchus flycatcher, but differs from species of Myiarchus in several features, including the presence of a whitish supraloral streak, a whitish subocular crescent, and the inconspicuous dusky streaking on the breast.

Flammulated Flycatcher most closely resembles flycatchers of the genus Myiarchus, perhaps especially the smaller species such as Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens), Nutting's Flycatcher (Myiarchus nuttingi), or Dusky-capped Flycatcher (Myiarchus tuberculifer). Compared to all species of Myiarchus, however, Flammulated Flycatcher has dusky streaking on a light gray breast; pale cinnamon (rather than rufous) edgings along the wing and tail; a different face pattern that includes a supraloral stripe, subocular crescent and dusky lores; and a broader bill. Flammulated Flycatcher also has more skulking behavior than Myiarchus and a distinctive voice.

The following description is based on Ridgway (1907) and Howell and Webb (1995):

Adult: Upperparts pale grayish olive. Uppertail coverts light grayish brown, broadly edged with cinnamon. Rectrices deep grayish brown, outer webs of rectrices edged with cinnamon, the outer web of the outer rectrix pale grayish buffy. Wings dusky, middle coverts broadly tipped with buffy cinnamon or cinnamon buff; greater coverts with terminal portion of outer web broadly edged with cinnamon. Secondaries edged with cinnamon buff, the edgings broader and more whitish or yellowish on tertials. Lores dusky; supraloral streak and subocular crescent whitish. Chin and throat grayish white, lower throat suffused or clouded with pale gray. Breast pale gray, broadly but indistinctly streaked with dusky. Belly pale yellow.

Juvenile: Similar to adult, but rectrices broadly edged with pale cinnamon.

Apparently undescribed.

Iris: brown

Bill: black or brownish black; base of mandible pale or flesh colored

Tarsi and toes: black

Bare parts color data from Ridgway (1907) and Lanyon (1982).

Total length: 15-17 cm (Howell and Webb 1995)

Linear measurements (of live birds, n = 29, sexes combined; Vega Rivera et al. 2011):

wing length (chord): mean 71.6 ± 2.25 mm

tarsus length: mean 18.1 ± 0.73 mm

culmen length: mean 10.2 ± 0.41 mm

Mass: mean 17.2 ± 0.86 g (Vega Rivera et al. 2011)