Appearance

Members of Tolmomyias are small forest flycatchers, with broad bills. The upperparts are olive, and the underparts are pale yellow; they do not have wing bars, but the wing coverts are broadly edged with yellow-green. The most distinctive features of the Orange-eyed Flycatcher are the prominent buff wash across the forecrown, auriculars, and breast, and the pale orangish brown iris. It also has a dusky or grayish crown.

Species of Tolmomyias are similar to one another in appearance. By Tolmomyias standards, the Orange-eyed Flycatcher is distinctive, due to the buffy wash on the face and breast, and the pale orangey iris. It further differs from Yellow-breasted Flycatcher (Tolmomyias flaviventris) by the dusky or grayish crown, contrasting with the color of the back. Yellow-margined Flycatcher (Tolmomyias assimilis) also has a pale "speculum" (pale bases to the primaries), and occupies a different habitat (the interior of terra firme forest). Orange-eyed Flycatcher is not known to overlap geographically with any member of the Yellow-olive Flycatcher (Tolmomyias sulphurescens) complex, which it apparently replaces; subspecies Tolmomyias sulphurescens insignis, of western Amazonia, lacks the buffy face and breast of Orange-eyed Flycatcher, and the wings of insignis are less patterned, with olive (not yellow) margins.

Orange-eyed Flycatcher is more readily identified by its distinctive Vocalizations.

The following description is based on Schulenberg and Parker (1997):

Adult: Sexes similar. Forecrown cinnamon, feathers tipped olive-gray. Lores buff, feathers narrowly tipped dusky. Crown olive-gray. Auriculars and sides of nape cinnamon buff. Center of nape, scapulars, lesser wing coverts, back, rump, and uppertail coverts pale olive-green. Greater wing coverts and remiges dusky; outer webs of greater wing coverts edged greenish yellow, and outer webs of remiges narrowly edged olive-green. On the innermost secondary, the greenish yellow outer margin is bordered medially by a narrow stripe of yellowish white. Inner web of inner primaries and all but innermost two secondaries edged cream. Rectrices dusky, outer web of all but outermost rectrix edged olive-green. Chin and throat whitish buff. Center of breast ochraceous buff, sides of breast slightly duller. Center of belly bright yellow. Lower breast and flanks pale yellow. Undertail coverts cream.

Juvenile: Undescribed.

Orange-eyed Flycatcher has the same wing formula as Yellow-olive Flycatcher (Tolmomyias sulphurescens): primary 4 is longer than primary 10 (primaries numbered from the outside in). In Yellow-margined Flycatcher (Tolmomyias assimilis), primary 10 averages longer than primary 4 (Zimmer 1939).

Undescribed.

Iris: pale orangish brown, yellowish flesh

Bill: maxilla black, mandible pale pinkish brown

Tarsi and toes: dull bluish gray

Bare parts color data from Schulenberg and Parker (1997).

Total length: 13.5 cm (Ridgely and Greenfield 2001b)

Mass: 11.5 g (male, n = 1; Schulenberg and Parker 1997)