About Phylloscartes eximius (Temminck, 1822)
Description: The southern bristle tyrant, Phylloscartes eximius, measures about 11 to 11.5 cm (4.3 to 4.5 in) in length; one recorded male weighed 7.5 g (0.26 oz). Both sexes have identical plumage. Adults have a gray crown and nape, with an olive tint in the center of the crown. A wide white streak at the lores narrows and turns grayer as it extends over and past the eye to the nape. Their ear coverts are yellow, crossed by a wide black crescent. The back, rump, and tail are bright olive. The wings are dusky, with yellowish olive edges on the flight feathers and wing coverts. The chin, throat, and underparts are bright yellow, with a light olive wash on the breast. Both sexes have a dark brown or dull red iris, a black maxilla, a pinkish white mandible, and pale gray legs and feet.
Distribution and habitat: The southern bristle tyrant is a bird native to the Atlantic Forest. Its range extends from central Minas Gerais and western Espírito Santo states in Brazil, south into northern Rio Grande do Sul, and west into eastern Paraguay and the extreme northeastern Argentinian province of Misiones. It lives in the interior and edges of humid forest, particularly near watercourses, and most often occurs in the mid-level of the forest. Sources disagree on its elevational range: the IUCN and van Perlo list an upper elevation limit of 600 m (2,000 ft), while the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birds of the World records it between approximately 800 and 1,700 m (2,600 and 5,600 ft) in the northern portion of its range, and as low as 100 m (300 ft) at the far southern edge of its range.
