White-throated spadebill

The white-throated spadebill (Platyrinchus mystaceus) is a tiny passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, on Trinidad and Tobago, and in every mainland South American country except Chile, French Guiana, Uruguay, and Suriname.

The white-throated spadebill is about 9 to 11 cm (3.5 to 4.3 in) long and weighs 7.5 to 12 g (0.26 to 0.42 oz). It has a large head with a bold facial pattern and a stubby tail. The sexes have almost the same plumage. Males of the nominate subspecies P. m. mystaceus have a dark olive-brown crown with a partially hidden yellow patch in the center; females have much smaller patch or none at all. Both sexes have pale buff-yellow as a patch above the lores, as an eye-ring, as a stripe behind the eye, and as a patch on the ear coverts. Their lores are dark blackish brown that continues as a stripe to beneath the eye and reappears as a patch on the ear coverts. Their upperparts, wings, and tail are olive-brown. Their throat is whitish to pale yellow and their underparts mostly creamy buff to ochraceous. Their breast and sides sometimes have a tawny to olive wash and their belly has an ochre tinge. Juveniles do not have the crown patch; they have brighter rufescent upperparts than adults, with a pale grayish brown throat and breast and a buffish white belly. Adults have a dark brown to grayish brown iris, a wide flat bill with a black maxilla and an off-white to pale gray mandible, and pale pinkish to grayish pink legs and feet.

The other eight subspecies of the "eastern" white-throated spadebill differ from the nominate and each other thus:

P. m. insularis: more greenish olive upperparts and paler and whiter belly than nominate, with olive-buff on breast appearing as a distinct band

P. m. imatacae: gray-tinged crown, yellowish buff breast, and yellowish white belly

P. m. ventralis: brighter yellow crown patch and darker ochre underparts than nominate; bill has a pinkish tip on the mandible

P. m. duidae: like insularis with darker upperparts and ochre-tinged underparts

P. m. ptaritepui: paler crown patch than nominate and an all dark bill

P. m. bifasciatus: strongly greenish upperparts, buffy yellow underparts, and pale wing bars

P. m. cancromus: essentially the same as nominate

P. m. niveigularis: pure white throat

Subspecies P. m. albogularis is the nominate of the "western" white-throated spadebill group and differs substantially from P. m. mystaceus. Males have the same dark olive crown and yellow patch as the nominate, though the yellow sometimes has a buff tinge. Like the nominate, females have little or no yellow on the crown. In both sexes the loral streak is dull white and their eye-ring bright white. They have an indistinct brownish buff spot on the ear coverts. Their upperparts are mostly brownish olive to reddish brown with paler uppertail coverts. They have one faint wing bar. Their tail is dusky with brown edges on the feathers. Their throat and foreneck are white, their upper breast buffy brown, their lower breast and belly pale yellow, and their undertail coverts white. They have a dark reddish brown to brown iris, a wide flat black bill with sometimes a pinkish tip on the mandible, and gray to pinkish gray legs and feet.

The other four subspecies of the "western" white-throated spadebill differ from albogularis and each other thus:

P. m. neglectus: similar to albogularis

P. m. perijanus: olivaceous upperparts

P. m. zamorae: similar to albogularis

P. m. partridgei: intermediate between the other three "western" subspecies and the nine "eastern" subspecies