Black-and-yellow Silky-flycatcher

The black-and-yellow phainoptila is about 20 cm (7.9 in) long. It weighs an average of 60 g (2.1 oz). It is a heavy-bodied bird with a wide rounded tail. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a black head, back, wings, and tail. Their rump is bright yellow. Their throat is black, their breast olive-green, the center of their belly gray, and the rest of their belly, sides, flanks, and undertail coverts bright yellow. Adult females have a dark gray hindneck, face, and throat that blends through sooty gray to a dark olive-green breast. Juveniles are similar to adult females but duller overall, with a sooty crown, faint dusky streaks on the breast, and olive-green flanks. Males of subspecies P. m. parkeri have a completely yellow breast (without the nominate's gray center) and females have a different pattern of streaks on the breast. Both subspecies have a dull red iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet with yellow soles.

Subspecies P. m. parkeri of the black-and-yellow phainoptila is found in the Tilarán and Guanacaste cordilleras in northern Costa Rica. The nominate subspecies is found in the Cordillera Central in central Costa Rica and the Cordillera de Talamanca which extends from south-central Costa Rica into western Panama. The ranges are separated from each other by deep river valleys in which the phainoptila is not found. The black-and-yellow phainoptila inhabits elfin forest and upper montane evergreen forest in the subtropical and temperate zones. Overall it ranges in elevation from 1,200 to 3,000 m (3,900 to 9,800 ft). Subspecies P. m. parkeri is found from 1,200 m (3,900 ft) and the nominate from 1,800 m (5,900 ft) to the timber line.

The black-and-yellow phainoptila feeds almost exclusively on fruits though it is known to include very small numbers of insects in its diet. Fruits from at least 36 genera of plants have been documented. It plucks fruit mostly while perched and take insects in mid-air. It forages mostly in the forest's middle levels. It has been documented briefly joining flocks of Chlorospingus sparrows.