About Elaenia cristata Pelzeln, 1868
The plain-crested elaenia (scientific name Elaenia cristata Pelzeln, 1868) measures 12.5 to 15 cm (4.9 to 5.9 in) long and weighs approximately 18 g (0.63 oz). It is a small elaenia with a prominent conspicuous crest. Its two subspecies and both sexes share essentially identical plumage. Adult plain-crested elaenias have a dull olive-brown head, with lighter brown cheeks and a thin whitish eyering. Their upperparts are also dull olive-brown. Their wings are mostly dusky; flight feathers have whitish edges, and the tips of the wing coverts are whitish. These whitish tips form two distinct bars when the wing is closed. The tail is dusky. The bird’s throat is grayish white, its breast is grayish olive, and its belly and undertail coverts are pale yellow. For both sexes of both subspecies, the iris is dark brown, the maxilla is black, the mandible is pale with a brownish tip, and the legs and feet are black. Of the two subspecies, the nominate subspecies has a far larger range. It is distributed across a continuous area extending from east of the Andes in Venezuela, through the Guianas, and across all of eastern Brazil within a region roughly bordered by the states of Amapá, Rio Grande do Norte, northeastern Bahia, São Paulo, and western Mato Grosso. From western Mato Grosso, its range extends slightly into the Santa Cruz Department of northeastern Bolivia. The nominate subspecies also forms isolated populations in the Caquetá and Vaupés departments of southeastern Colombia, the Cuzco and Madre de Dios departments of southeastern Peru, the La Paz and Beni departments of northern Bolivia, and Rondônia state in western Amazonian Brazil. Subspecies E. c. alticola is found only on the tepuis of southeastern Venezuela and adjacent northwestern Brazil. The plain-crested elaenia primarily lives in savanna. It also occurs in open park-like savanna woodlands, scrubby areas, and cerrado. One of its Peruvian populations resides in the dry middle valley of the Urubamba River at an elevation of roughly 1,100 m (3,600 ft). Across the rest of its range, it occurs from sea level up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Brazil, and up to 1,350 m (4,400 ft) in Venezuela; in Colombia it only occurs up to approximately 200 m (660 ft).
