About Sublegatus modestus (Wied-Neuwied, 1831)
The southern scrub flycatcher, with the scientific name Sublegatus modestus (Wied-Neuwied, 1831), measures 13 to 15 cm (5.1 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 9.5 to 13 g (0.34 to 0.46 oz). Males and females have identical plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a grayish brown crown that can sometimes be erected to form a shaggy crest. Their face is mostly whitish to pale gray, with an almost undetectable pale supercilium, a dark line running through the eye, and darker gray coloration toward the back of the ear coverts. Their back and rump are grayish brown. Their wings are dusky gray, with paler grayish edges on the flight feathers and paler tips on the wing coverts; the paler tips form two distinct wing bars. Their tail is dusky. Their chin is whitish, their throat and breast are pale gray, and their belly is medium to pale yellow, with no sharp division between the different color areas. Subspecies S. m. brevirostris has pure white tips on the wing coverts, and longer wings and tail than the nominate subspecies. Both subspecies have a dark brown iris, a stubby black bill, and gray legs and feet. Multiple taxonomic and ornithological sources disagree on the range of the southern scrub flycatcher. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) places the nominate subspecies from central Peru and northern Bolivia eastward into eastern and southern Brazil, and places S. m. brevirostris from eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay south to central Argentina. The Clements taxonomy does not include Bolivia in the nominate subspecies' range, and expands the description of its Brazilian range to note it is roughly bordered on the east by the states of Maranhão, Pernambuco, and Paraná; Clements agrees with the IOC on the range of S. m. brevirostris. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birds of the World agrees with the IOC on the nominate subspecies' range, and adds that S. m. brevirostris occurs as a non-breeding visitor in northern and eastern Peru and central Amazonia. The map in A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil generally matches the range described for Brazil by these other sources. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society does not provide separate ranges for the two subspecies. It places the southern scrub flycatcher in all of the countries named by the other sources, and also adds Guyana and Suriname, notes it occurs as a non-breeding visitor in Colombia, and is a vagrant in Ecuador. Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia mentions only a single record of the species in Colombia. A Field Checklist of the Birds of Guyana includes the species. Avibase lists the species as rare and accidental in Guyana and Suriname. The southern scrub flycatcher lives in dry to arid scrublands and open deciduous woodlands. In terms of elevation, it mostly occurs from sea level in Brazil up to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Peru. It has been recorded as high as 2,750 m (9,000 ft) in Bolivia. The single Colombian record was from an elevation below 200 m (660 ft).
