About Mecocerculus stictopterus (P.L.Sclater, 1859)
The white-banded tyrannulet (scientific name Mecocerculus stictopterus (P.L.Sclater, 1859)) measures 12.5 to 13 cm (4.9 to 5.1 in) long and weighs 8 to 11 g (0.28 to 0.39 oz). Males and females share identical plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a medium gray crown, a white supercilium, a blackish stripe running through the eye, and a faint dusky crescent behind the ear coverts on an otherwise whitish face. Their upperparts are dark brownish olive, and their wings are dark dusky with bright yellow to ochraceous edges on the flight feathers. The wing coverts have wide pure white tips that form two distinct bars on the closed wing. Their tail is dusky olive. Their throat is grayish white, their breast is grayish white with a darker grayish wash, their belly is whitish, and their undertail coverts are pale yellow.
Subspecies M. s. albocaudatus differs from the nominate only in that its outermost tail feathers are dull buffy white. Subspecies M. s. taeniopterus has a paler gray crown, slightly lighter greener (less brown) upperparts, and a paler gray wash on the breast compared to the nominate. Both sexes of all subspecies have a brown iris, a long thin black bill with a dull pinkish base to the mandible, and gray legs and feet.
For distribution and habitat, the nominate subspecies of white-banded tyrannulet ranges from the Colombian Andes south through Ecuador along both Andean slopes, and continues along the western slope into the northern Peruvian departments of Piura, Cajamarca, and Amazonas. Subspecies M. s. albocaudatus lives in the Andes of western Venezuela's Trujillo, Mérida, and Táchira states. Subspecies M. s. taeniopterus occurs on the eastern slope of the Andes, from eastern La Libertad Department in northern Peru south to Santa Cruz Department in northern Bolivia.
The white-banded tyrannulet lives in humid montane temperate evergreen forest. It prefers mossy cloudforest, stunted elfin forest, moderately open woodlands, alder (Alnus) thickets along landslide scars, and brushy areas near treeline. Its elevation range is 2,000 to 3,600 m (6,600 to 11,800 ft) in Colombia, mostly 2,400 to 3,500 m (7,900 to 11,500 ft) in Ecuador, 2,400 to 3,600 m (7,900 to 11,800 ft) in Peru, and 1,900 to 3,050 m (6,200 and 10,000 ft) in Venezuela.
