White-throated Flycatcher

How to find it

Look in lower, often marshy places well below the Irazú and Turrialba volcanoes. Light is often poor, so listen for its rasping call to be sure of the bird. Angostura reservoir near Turrialba is a spot where many observers report it regularly. Away from the breeding highlands, the species winters lower in marshes and other habitats with rushes, reeds and scrubby edges, and these are good places to check. Scan low perches at the edge of open ground.

How to recognise it

This is a small, very brown Empidonax with short rounded wings. It is about 12 to 14 cm long, and adults weigh about 12 g.

Look for these marks:

A white throat.

A pale yellowish buff belly.

Two buffy wing bars.

A faint, dull eye-ring that is narrow, buffy and poorly defined.

A black upper bill and a pinkish-orange lower bill.

The mouth lining is orange and the legs are blackish. In poor light the white throat is hard to judge, so treat the plumage as one clue and the voice as the other.

Behaviour and diet

It eats mostly insects plus a little fruit. It perches low, in or at the edge of open areas, and catches prey in mid-air or picks it from plants. After landing on a perch, it quivers its wings and tail, a small habit worth watching for when a brown flycatcher sits still at a marsh edge.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is found mostly between about 500 and 1,500 m elevation. It is most often found in lower, marshy areas well below the Irazú and Turrialba volcanoes. Around Cartago it lives in scattered habitat patches in the Valle del Guarco, forming an arc south and east of the city from Paraíso to Coris. It is fairly common around the western and southern base of Irazú Volcano and uncommon along the country's mountain ranges. Across its range it lives in moist shrubland and heavily degraded former forest.

Similar birds

Three of the migrant Empidonax species in Costa Rica also have a whitish throat, and poor light makes the white hard to judge, so the voice helps. Costa Rica has four resident Empidonax, and this is the only one that is hard to separate in the field from the northern migrants, which are here from late August through May. Alder and Willow Flycatchers are almost impossible to separate except by voice, so birders lump them as Traill's Flycatcher.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

In Costa Rica the bird is called Mosquerito Gargantiblanco. Elsewhere it goes by other Spanish names, such as mosquerito cuelliblanco, mosquerito gorjiblanco (Mexico, Panama) and mosquero garganta blanca (Mexico).

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it as resident and migrant (R,M): it appears to be a year-round highland resident with some movement up and down slope, and the IUCN rates it Least Concern.

Photography tips

Light is often poor in the marshy places where it lives, so let the rasping call lead you to the bird. Watch low perches at the edge of open ground for a small brown flycatcher that quivers its wings and tail after landing.