Order
Passeriformes
Family
Tyrannidae
Genus
Mionectes
 
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Version 1.0

This is a historic version of this account.  Current version

SPECIES

Ochre-bellied Flycatcher Mionectes oleagineus

Hilary Standish, Eleanor Mayne, Frances Hall, and Wendy Tori
Version: 1.0 — Published December 13, 2013

Behavior

Introduction

Ochre-bellied Flycatcher forages at all strata (Parker et al. 1996), but primarily in the understory and midstory (Hilty and Brown 1986, Stiles and Skutch 1989, Howell and Webb 1995). Forages with short sallies, with the bird usually hovering briefly to complete to food capture (Fitzpatrick 1980). Ochre-bellied Flycatchers "persistently" twitch one wing at a time over the back (Stiles and Skutch 1989).

Territoriality

Little information. Terborgh et al. (1990) estimated a density of 4 individuals/100 ha at one site in southeastern Peru.

Sexual Behavior

Ochre-bellied flycatchers exhibit both solitary courtship and lekking behavior. Leks of this species tend to average 763 m2 in size. Generally, males lek in moderately open undergrowth within earshot but not necessarily sight of each other (i.e., an exploded lek). They intermittently produce a variety of "sharp chirps and twitters" while they simultaneously and repeatedly flash wings and ruffle crown feathers (Ridgely and Tudor 1994; see Vocalizations). When a female enters a territory, males increase the rate of singing, and, once the female becomes visible, males increase the rate and exaggeration of wing flashes. In the event a female moves away, a male may follow her, continuing with his display. If she were to leave entirely then the male may chase her as he would a rival male (Westcott and Smith 1996).

Lekking males exhibit one of three behaviorial strategies during the breeding season (Westcott 1993). The first type of male behavior is that of territory owners. These males defend the lekking territories either alone or with "gangs" of two-six other male Ochre-bellied Flycatchers. Because lek territories often share boundaries, invasion by rivals is common. When such an invasion occurs the invader is chased to the territories boundary; however, if the invading individual persists the territory owner chases him into neighboring territories. Territory owners mainly spend time at their lekking site preening and singing; it is uncommon to see them investing a lot of time into foraging for food while at the lekking site (Westcott and Smith 1994).

Around 10% of males acted as satellite males to these leks. Satellite males gather around the lek site of a territory owner male in hopes of garnering a female’s attention, but they are not considered part of the lek as they do not help defend the territory. These males often stay almost exclusively with one particular lek, and are rarely seen moving to other territories. Satellite males are completely submissive to the territory owner they stay close to the ground are are usually absent while the territory owner is around. When the territory owner is not around however, they act as if they own the territory. They can be observed singing, displaying, and even chasing off other intruders. The longer a satellite male remains at one territory, the bolder he becomes; he no longer stays close to the ground, and is more likely to attempt to display in the presence of the territory owner (Westcott and Smith 1994).

Finally, about 48% of males are solitary males. Solitary males neither lek, nor do they attempt to interrupt other lek groups. They instead move around a territory creating display sites of their own and performing solitary displays (Westcott and Smith 1994).
As the lek size of Ochre-bellied Flycatcher increases, from a small lek of two males to a larger lek containing up to 6 males, so does the number of females that visit the site. However the ratio of males to females remains constant across all lek sizes. An upside of having a large lek is that more females are likely to visit; however, it has been found that interruption by rival males increases as lek size increases. Solitary display sights have no such interruptions (Westcott and Smith 1996).

Social and interspecific behavior

Ochre-bellied Flycatchers usually are solitary, although they sometimes associate with tanager dominated mixed species flocks, especially at fruiting trees.

Predation

Recommended Citation

Standish, H., E. Mayne, F. Hall, and W. Tori (2013). Ochre-bellied Flycatcher (Mionectes oleagineus), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.ocbfly1.01