Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher

How to recognise it

About 20 to 24 cm, a little longer than a new pencil, and much of that is tail. It is slender, with a crest on its head.

The mark that settles it is the long black tail with its two middle feathers sticking out past the rest. Then the supporting marks on the male: a grey crown, a thin yellow ring round the eye, a yellowish olive-green face and crest, a bluish grey back and bright yellow under the tail. The female is duller and her tail a little shorter.

Listen for a dry, sharp che chip, che chip. One source likens a flock calling to loose pebbles rattled in a box.

Where it lives

Fairly open country high in the mountains: the edges of old and regrown forest, pastures with scattered trees, and gardens. It lives in the Cordillera Central and in the Talamanca range, and it is not found in the deep river valleys between them. It lives from about 1,800 to 3,000 metres, so the San Gerardo valley and the ridge at km 70 are both inside its range.

When to see it

All year: it does not migrate. Outside the nesting season it wanders more widely, sometimes lower than usual. It nests between April and June.