About Myiodynastes hemichrysus (Cabanis, 1861)
The golden-bellied flycatcher (Myiodynastes hemichrysus) measures 20 to 22 cm (7.9 to 8.7 in) long and weighs approximately 39 to 42.5 g (1.4 to 1.5 oz). Both sexes share identical plumage. For adults of the nominate subspecies M. h. hemichrysus, the crown and nape are dusky grayish olive or dark sooty gray with thin black streaks, and have a large, usually hidden yellow patch at the center of the crown. These adults have a wide white supercilium, a wide blackish stripe running through the lores and ear coverts, and a grayish olive or dusky cheek crossed by a whitish stripe. Their upperparts are mostly olive green, with a greenish rump and uppertail coverts that have cinnamon edges on their tips. Their wings are dusky grayish brown, with thin cinnamon or cinnamon-buff edges on the greater coverts. The inner primaries and outer secondaries have thin cinnamon edges, while the inner secondaries have wider whitish yellow edges. Their tail is mostly dark grayish brown, with wide pale cinnamon or cinnamon-buff edges on the inner webs of the tail feathers. Their chin is whitish, their throat is canary-yellow, and the rest of their underparts are deep lemon-yellow with faint, indistinct olive streaks on the breast. Subspecies M. h. minor is slightly darker than the nominate, and has more brownish olive upperparts. Subspecies M. h. cinerascens is nearly identical to the nominate. Juveniles do not have a yellow crown patch, and have more brownish olive-green upperparts and paler, slightly buffy underparts than adult birds. All subspecies have a brown iris, a stout black or brownish black bill with a brownish base to the mandible, and dusky gray legs and feet.
This species has a disjunct distribution, with the three subspecies occupying separate geographic ranges. The nominate subspecies, the northernmost of the three, occurs from the Cordillera de Guanacaste in northern Costa Rica south to Veraguas Province in western Panama. Subspecies M. h. minor is found from Darién Province in the far eastern part of Panama, south through all three ranges of the Colombian Andes and the Andes of Ecuador, to Peru north of the Marañon River. Subspecies M. h. cinerascens lives in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, the Serranía del Perijá along the Colombia-Venezuela border, and the mountains of western and northern Venezuela from Zulia and Táchira states east to Sucre and Monagas states.
The golden-bellied flycatcher inhabits the canopy and edges of humid to wet montane forest, particularly cloudforest, in the upper tropical and subtropical zones. It is often found alongside roads and watercourses, and at the edges of natural and human-made clearings. It also occurs in plantations and other human-modified habitats. Its elevation range varies by location: in Costa Rica and Panama, it occurs between roughly 800 and 1,800 m (2,600 and 5,900 ft) on the Caribbean slope, and up to 2,300 m (7,500 ft) on the Pacific slope; in Colombia it occurs between 1,000 and 2,900 m (3,300 and 9,500 ft); in Ecuador it lives mostly between 1,000 and 2,200 m (3,300 and 7,200 ft); and in Venezuela it occurs between 600 and 2,300 m (2,000 and 7,500 ft).
