Yellow-olive flycatcher

Yellow-olive flycatcher; note pale iris and not-so-bright wing margins

Yellow-olive flycatcher; note pale iris and not-so-bright wing margins

 

I unfortunately have to report a crash victim, the first in a long time not to recover. This one was (I believe)  a Yellow-olive Flycatcher (Tolmomyias sulphurescens), the first that I have seen at the actual house here. Moreover, it had hit a small window that has not had casualties before.

Perhaps I have overlooked the presence of this small flycatcher by not scanning more closely the Paltry Tyrannulets (Zimmerius vilissimus) that are here quite frequently.  On reflection, this is unlikely because the tyrannulet, apart from being significantly smaller, has a very short bill. The difference is immediately evident when the bird is reasonably close. I measured this bird at almost exactly 5 inches and its bill is quite large and wide proportionate to the body size.

The rather dark grey of the head makes me tempted to call it a Yellow-margined flycatcher (Tolmomyias assimilis), a nearly identical species that I have seen in this area perhaps only once or twice. However, the iris seems pale rather than dark, and, as I mentioned in my post of Christmas Day, 2014, the Yellow-olive is said to be common in the Caribbean up to 1400 m while the Yellow-margined is less so, and only up to 1000 m. The colour of the wing margins did not seem to me a single good basis for identification.

Perhaps some interested birder more qualified than I will be able to help on the basis of the photo above.

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