Diet and Foraging

The diet of Ochre-bellied Flycatcher includes both insects and fruits. At one site in northeastern Costa Rica, these flycatchers most frequently ate fruits of Ossaea macrophyllat, Henriettea tuberculosa, and Clidemia densiflorall (Loiselle and Blake 1999). Other fruits in the diet, in Trinidad, include mistletoe berries and fruits of Xanthoxylum, Alchornea,and Siparuna (Snow and Snow 2009).  Ochre-bellied Flycatcher swallows the fruit whole and regurgitates large seeds while passing smaller seeds (Westcott and Graham 2000).

Ochre-bellied Flycatcher does not consume an equal proportion of fruit to insects throughout the year. The months when this flycatcher consumes the highest fruit: insect ratio, at one site in southeastern Mexico, are September and October (Herrera et al. 2005). During these months the insect availability begins to decline while the fruit availability continues. However, when insect and fruit populations are in equal abundance the Ochre-bellied Flycatcher exhibits a distinct preference for insects over fruit (Herrera et al. 2005). During times when Ochre-bellied Flycatcher has the highest metabolic demands, such as the breeding season, they rely on a mixture of both fruits and insects to gather the high amount of protein found in insects as well as the high amount of sugars found in fruit (Westcott and Graham 2000).