Southern Tropical Pewee Contopus cinereus Scientific name definitions

The Southern Tropical Pewee occurs across much of southern and eastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, northeast and northwest Argentina, northern and eastern Bolivia, and (apparently solely as an austral migrant) southeast Peru. It is found in light and secondary woodland, plantations, semi-deciduous forest borders, and other semi-open wooded habitats, mainly below 1,300 m, but locally higher throughout the species’ southern range, exceptionally as high as 2,850 m in Bolivia. Overall, this pewee is similar morphologically to two other species with which it was formerly considered conspecific—Northern Tropical Pewee (Contopus bogotensis) of Middle America and northern South America and Tumbes Pewee (Contopus punensis) in western Ecuador and western Peru—being generally grayish brown, with darker upperparts, usually with two poorly defined pale wingbars, and sometimes with an indication of a paler throat and lores, as well as a pale mandible to the bill. To date, despite being a generally common and reasonably obtrusive species, its ecology is extremely poorly known.