Crowned Slaty Flycatcher

The crowned slaty flycatcher is 16.5 to 18 cm (6.5 to 7.1 in) long and weighs 27 to 46 g (0.95 to 1.6 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a flattened black crown with a mostly hidden golden yellow patch in the center, a gray supercilium, and dusky ear coverts. Their upperparts are brownish gray. Their wings and tail are dusky with lighter feather edges. Their underparts are light gray with a yellowish tinge on the belly. Subspecies E. a. pallideventris is smaller than the nominate, with much lighter pale grayish olive upperparts and lighter mouse-gray underparts. Juveniles have a paler and more contrasting supercilium than adults, with white edges on the wing coverts and flight feathers and thin rufous edges on the tail feathers. Both subspecies have a brown iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet.

The nominate subspecies of the crowned slaty flycatcher has by far the larger range of the two. It is found in southern Colombia, eastern Ecuador and Peru, northern and eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, western Uruguay, southern Guyana, northern and central Argentina to Río Negro Province, and Brazil. Its range in Brazil is roughly bounded on the east by western Minas Gerais, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. It has also been recorded as a vagrant in Chile, French Guiana, and Venezuela and once each in Panama and Louisiana. Subspecies E. a. pallideventris is found only in Brazil in an area roughly bounded by eastern Pará, Maranhão, northern Goiás, and northern Mato Grosso.

The crowned slaty flycatcher feeds on insects and fruit though details are lacking. It usually forages singly, taking insects on the wing with sallies from a perch atop a tree or shrub.