About Onychorhynchus coronatus (Statius Muller, 1776)
The tropical royal flycatcher, Onychorhynchus coronatus, is 12.5 to 18 cm (4.9 to 7.1 in) long and weighs 9.7 to 21 g (0.34 to 0.74 oz). It has an erectile fan-shaped crest. In the nominate subspecies O. c. coronatus, the male's crest is red with blue tips, while the female's is yellow or orange. Apart from the crest, the plumage of the two sexes is identical. Adults have a broken buffy eye ring and a faint buffy streak on the cheek. Their upperparts are dark brown, with narrow black and buffy bars on the lower back. Their rump and tail are cinnamon-rufous, and become browner towards the end of the tail. Their wings are dark brown, with small buff spots on the tips of the coverts and tertials. Their throat is whitish, their breast warm buff with narrow black bars, and their belly plain warm buff. Their iris comes in various shades of brown, their maxilla is dark brown to blackish, their mandible is horn to yellowish or orange, and their legs and feet are dull yellow or orangish. Subspecies O. c. castelnaui is very similar to the nominate, though it is slightly smaller and has less barring on the back. O. c. mexicanus is the largest subspecies. Its upperparts are not as dark as the nominate's, its tail is more rufous, its chin and throat are white, and its breast has less barring. O. c. fraterculus is slightly smaller than mexicanus, with a paler cinnamon rump and tail and even less barring on the breast. O. c. occidentalis is about the same size as fraterculus. It is mostly bright buffy brown, with a pale tawny tail and an unmarked breast. The male's crest is more red than the nominate's orange, and has black tips. Each subspecies of the tropical royal flycatcher occupies a distinct geographic range. O. c. castelnaui is found east of the Andes in western Amazonia, ranging from southeastern Colombia and Venezuela's Amazonas state south through Ecuador into Peru and northern Bolivia, and east in Brazil to the Rio Negro and Rio Tapajós. O. c. coronatus occurs in southern and eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and in Brazil east of the Rio Negro and Rio Tapajós. O. c. mexicanus ranges from southeastern Mexico to Panama. O. c. fraterculus lives in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela. O. c. occidentalis is found discontinuously in western Ecuador from Esmeraldas Province to El Oro Province, and extends slightly into Peru's Department of Tumbes. The tropical royal flycatcher inhabits humid lowlands, including both primary evergreen and second growth forests. It occupies the lower levels and midstory of forests, and is often found along streams and in seasonally flooded várzea forest. Its elevation range extends from sea level to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) across most of Central America and Colombia, though it occurs at lower elevations in Costa Rica. In Brazil it occurs below 1,000 m (3,300 ft), in eastern Ecuador below 400 m (1,300 ft), and in western Ecuador below 600 m (2,000 ft).
