Legatus leucophaius
The Piratic Flycatcher (Legatus leucophaius) is a captivating neotropical tyrant flycatcher renowned for its unusual nesting and foraging behaviors. Measuring approximately 14-15 cm (5.5-6 inches) in length and weighing 18-20 grams, this medium-sized flycatcher exhibits subtle beauty with olive-brown upperparts, a distinctive dark-streaked crown, and a bright white supercilium that contrasts with dark lores. Its underparts are a striking yellow, brighter on the belly, and it possesses a relat...
Found in semi-open woodlands, forest edges, clearings with scattered trees, and secondary growth, often near fruiting trees, typically at low to mid-elevations from sea level up to 2,000 meters.
Primarily frugivorous, consuming a wide variety of small fruits, with a particular fondness for mistletoe berries (Phoradendron spp.), supplemented by insects caught in flight.
Piratic Flycatchers are active diurnal birds, often observed singly or in pairs, perching conspicuously on exposed branches. Their foraging strategy involves both aerial hawking for insects and gleaning berries, but they are most famously known for kleptoparasitism, actively raiding the nests of ...
The Piratic Flycatcher boasts an extensive geographic distribution spanning much of the Neotropics. Its breeding range extends from southeastern Mexico, through Central America including Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. In South America, it is found widely across Co...
Least Concern
- The Piratic Flycatcher gets its name from its habit of 'pirating' nests, rarely building its own, and often stealing food from other birds. - They are one of the very few bird species in the world known to regularly take over and modify the nests of other species, rather than building their own...