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BIRDS OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 4 



HYLOPHILUS OCHRACEICEPS Sclater: Tawny-crowned Greenlet, 

 Verdecillo Coronileonado 



Hylopilus ochraceiceps P.L. Sclater, 1859, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 27, p. 375. 

 (Playa Vicente, Oaxaca.) 



Very small; tawny brown; rest of upper surface brownish to olive; 

 wings and tail russet; undersurface greenish yellow to olive-green. 



Description. — Length 95-112 mm. Adult (sexes alike), tawny 

 brown sometimes with a bit of yellow at base of lores; rest of upper 

 surface from dark russet-brown to olive-green; wing coverts as back; 

 remiges dusky, with outer webs edged tawny brown; tail tawny brown; 

 upper throat grayish white; rest of undersurface olive yellowish 

 (bulunensis) or breast yellowish brown fading to light greenish yellow 

 on remainder of undersurface; edge of wing, underwing coverts, and 

 underside of inner webs of remiges yellow. 



The Tawny-crowned Greenlet is found from southeastern Mexico 

 to northern Bolivia and Amazonian Brazil. Nine races are recognized, 

 of which 3 occur in Panama; the Panamanian forms differ from one 

 another mainly in the color of the back, which ranges from distinctly 

 brown to olive-green. This greenlet is an uncommon resident of forest 

 and second-growth woodland in lowlands and foothills; it has been 

 recorded as high as 1500 m in Chiriqui (Ridgely, 1976, p. 287) . Eisen- 

 mann (Condor, 1962, p. 507) considers it more common in foothills 

 than in the humid wooded lowlands. It inhabits dense undergrowth, 

 rather than the higher levels in which the Lesser Greenlet moves; like 

 other species of the genus, H. ochraceiceps is an active searcher for 

 the small invertebrates that make up its diet. It often travels in pairs 

 or family groups; it has been observed with various species of antwren 

 and, in Belize, with Red-crowned Ant-Tanagers (Habia rubica) 

 (Willis, Wilson Bull. 1960, pp. 104-105). Its voice is different from 

 that of the other greenlets: Eisenmann (op. cit.) noted "a constantly 

 uttered nya-nya, and a more vireonine weng," and Ridgely (op. cit.) 

 mentions also "a rather long, slightly descending whistle." 



HYLOPHILUS OCHRACEICEPS PALLIDPECTUS (Ridgway) 



Pachysylvia ochraceiceps pallidipectus Ridgway, 1903, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washing- 

 ton, 16, p. 108. (Angostura, Cartago, Costa Rica.) 



Characters. — Upper surface definitely brown, breast with consider- 

 able buffy tinge. 



A female taken March 15, 1965, at El Volcan, Chiriqui, had the iris 

 light grayish brown; maxilla fuscous-brown; mandible dull neutral 

 gray becoming browner on the distal end of the gonys. 



