Black-tailed Flycatcher

How to find it

Most sightings come from the shaded understory along trails, stream edges and light gaps in the forest, so scan those spots slowly. Watch for a small bird sallying from a shaded perch, and for a black tail flicked or spread wide while it hunts. Check any mixed-species flock that passes, since it regularly joins them. Woodland edges and secondary forest, especially near water, suit it better than deep forest interior. One Costa Rican source calls it hard to find and best visited with a private guide.

How to recognise it

This is a small flycatcher, about 12.5 to 13 cm long, with long bristles around the bill. Look for these marks:

- Olive above, with a clearly visible yellow rump.

- A black tail, the darkest in its genus.

- A white throat.

- Even yellow underparts with little or no brown.

- A dingy, dusky buff breast, as a Costa Rica field guide describes it.

Males have a hidden yellow patch on the crown, which you will not normally see in the field. A field guide also notes that it often looks small-headed and long-tailed, a useful impression for picking it out from other small yellow-bellied flycatchers.

Behaviour and diet

It is usually seen alone or in pairs, and it regularly joins mixed-species flocks. It hunts insects with short sallies out from shaded perches in the forest understory.

It often flicks its dark tail as it forages, and it flashes the black tail and spreads it wide, which can draw the eye. Now and then it flicks both wings up at once, which makes a faint whirring sound.

The nest is a bell-shaped, pear-like structure hanging from a branch several meters above the ground. These habits describe the species in general, not only Costa Rican birds.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica the species lives in the southwest of the country. Across its range it usually frequents forest edges and secondary growth, often near water.

It lives in the undergrowth of several forest types, including seasonally flooded areas and gallery woodland, and it occurs up to roughly 1400 m elevation. Where its range overlaps with the Whiskered Myiobius it is generally in drier habitats.

A Costa Rica field guide says it is less of a forest bird than the Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher, though it does enter humid forest where that species is absent.

Similar birds

Costa Rica's other Myiobius, the Sulphur-rumped Flycatcher, is a close relative. The Black-tailed is told by its buff underparts and a calmer, less acrobatic manner, and it favors woodland edges and secondary forest. Outside Costa Rica it looks very much like the Whiskered Myiobius, which prefers forest interior and has tawny tones below that the Black-tailed lacks.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Mosquerito Colinegro is the name used in Costa Rica. Elsewhere in Latin America it is also called Atrapamoscas Colinegro, the name used in Colombia and Venezuela, or Moscareta Colinegra, the general Spanish name.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and the IUCN rates it Least Concern (assessed 2020), though the population trend is listed as decreasing.

Photography tips

A field guide says it often looks small-headed and long-tailed, which helps pick it out from other small yellow-bellied flycatchers. Scan the shaded understory along trails, stream edges and light gaps in the forest, where most sightings come from.