Smoky-fronted Tody-Flycatcher

The smoky-fronted tody-flycatcher is about 9 cm (3.5 in) long and weighs 6 to 7.2 g (0.21 to 0.25 oz). The sexes and the two subspecies have the same plumage. Adults have a smoky-gray forehead ("front") and an olive crown. Their face is mostly olive with dull buffish white above the lores and around the eye. Their back, rump, and uppertail coverts are olive. Their wings are blackish with yellowish edges on the flight feathers and buff-yellowish tips on the coverts; the latter show as two wing bars. Their tail is blackish. Their throat is whitish that becomes pale yellow on the breast and belly. Their breast has faint olive streaks and their sides have an olive tinge. They have a light red-brown iris, a black bill with a bit of white on the tip, and plumbeous legs and feet.

The smoky-fronted tody-flycatcher has a disjunct distribution. Subspecies P. f. penardi is the more northerly of the two. It is found primarily in Suriname and French Guiana. There is a record from southern Amazonas state and what is believed to be this subspecies has been recorded in southeastern Bolívar state, both in Venezuela. The nominate subspecies is found in two areas of Brazil. One is from central Pará east to southern Maranhão and south to northeastern Mato Grosso. The other is along the eastern coast from Paraíba south to northern Bahia. The smoky-fronted tody-flycatcher inhabits dense shrubs and thickets along the edges of forest and in neglected pastures and clearings. It also occurs in bushes in savanna near forest. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 400 m (1,300 ft).

The smoky-fronted tody-flycatcher feeds on insects. It typically forages in pairs and is not known to join mixed-species feeding flocks. It mostly forages in dense vegetation and takes prey from foliage with short sallies from a perch.