Chestnut-crowned Becard

The chestnut-crowned becard is about 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long and weighs about 17 g (0.60 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies P. c. castaneus have a dark chestnut-rufous crown with a scaly appearance, dusky lores, a pale buff-whitish line above the lores, a gray line above the eye that widens and extends around the nape, and pale cinnamon cheeks. Their upperparts are mostly cinnamon-rufous. Their wings are mostly dusky cinnamon with dusky rufous coverts and dusky flight feathers with light cinnamon-rufous edges. Their tail is cinnamon-rufous. Their underparts are pale cinnamon-buff that is paler on the throat. Subspecies P. c. saturatus has darker and more chestnut upperparts and a slightly grayer and less scaly crown than the nominate. P. c. intermedius and P. c. amazonus have slightly paler upperparts and tail than the nominate. P. c. parui is darker overall than the nominate with a more dusky chestnut crown. All subspecies have a dark iris, a blackish bill, and dusky legs and feet.

The chestnut-crowned becard has a disjunct distribution. The subspecies are found thus:

P. c. saturatus: from southeastern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador and eastern Peru into northern Bolivia; east from there in western Brazil to the Manaus region and the Purus River; isolated population in Venezuela's southeastern Bolívar state P. c. intermedius: northern Venezuela from the north end of the Andes in Lara and east through Falcón, and Yaracuy, and the Coast Ranges in Anzoátegui, Sucre, and Monagas P. c. parui: Cerro Parú in southern Venezuela's Amazonas state P. c. amazonus: Brazil along the Amazon from eastern Amazonas east to the Tocantins River and Maranhão state P. c. castaneus: eastern and southeastern Brazil south of a line roughly from Mato Grosso do Sul northeast to northern Bahia and from there south to northern Rio Grande do Sul and into southeastern Paraguay and far northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province In the Amazon Basin the chestnut-crowned becard inhabits humid terra firme and várzea lowland forest, where it favors the edges and clearings with tall trees. There it also inhabits riparian forest, secondary woodland, and coffee plantations. Its northern Venezuelan and southeastern populations inhabit a similar mix of forest types though some are drier than those of the Amazon Basin. …

The chestnut-crowned becard feeds on large insects including caterpillars and occasionally includes berries in its diet. It typically forages in pairs though sometimes singly, and usually does not join mixed-species feeding flocks. It forages mostly in the forest's upper levels, where it gleans food while perched and with short sallies from the perch and sometimes while briefly hovering.