Buff-throated Purpletuft

The buff-throated purpletuft is 8.7 to 10.5 cm (3.4 to 4.1 in) long; two individuals weighed 9.6 and 10.5 g (0.34 and 0.37 oz). The sexes have almost the same plumage. They have long wings, a short tail, and a wide bill with a hooked tip. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a pale gray supercilium, a dusky line through the eye, and a broken white eye-ring on an otherwise gray face. Their crown is a darker gray than their face. Their upperparts are mostly gray with a white rump. Their wings are mostly dusky to blackish with dusky coverts. Their tail is dusky to blackish. Their chin has a narrow white band. Their throat and upper breast are cinnamon-buff. They are mottled gray across the breast and along their sides, their belly is white, and their undertail coverts cinnamon-buff. Males have a small tuft of purple feathers on their upper flank; females have no tufts. Subspecies I. p. leucopygia has a larger white rump band and a purer buff throat than the nominate. Both sexes of both subspecies have a dark brown iris, a black bill with a lead-gray base to the mandible, and dark lead-gray legs. Juveniles have white tips on their dark feathers.

The buff-throated purpletuft has a disjunct distribution on the coast of eastern and southeastern Brazil. Subspecies I. p. leucopygia is the more northerly of the two. It is found intermittently from Paraíba south to northeastern Minas Gerais. The nominate is found somewhat more nearly continuously from Espírito Santo south to Paraná. There are also scattered records outside these core ranges. It is a bird of the Atlantic Forest, where it inhabits primary and secondary forest, cocoa plantations with a forest overcover, and clearings with some trees. "There is some evidence that the species may be associated with a single species of tall, fine-leafed leguminous tree, which is widespread and locally common, and often supports the clumps of mistletoe on which it primarily feeds." In elevation it is almost always found below 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

The buff-throated purpletuft appears to feed mostly on the berries of mistletoe (Loranthaceae) but also feeds on other fruits and on insects. It forages in the forest canopy and takes insects above it. It plucks fruit both while perched and with a sally from a perch; insects are taken while perched and in mid-air.