Olivaceous Piha

The olivaceous piha is 23 to 24 cm (9.1 to 9.4 in) long; three males weighed about 72 to 76 g (2.5 to 2.7 oz). The sexes have similar plumage. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a mostly olive head with brighter olive ear coverts and a partially hidden black crest in the middle of the crown. Their upperparts are olive green that is brightest on the rump. Their tail is a browner to grayer olive than their upperparts with thin olive edges on the feathers. Their wings are mostly brown with thin olive edges on the flight feathers. Their underparts are mostly olive with thin white streaks from the lower throat to the belly and some lemon yellow undertail coverts. Adult females are much more brownish than males and have little or no crest on the crown. Subspecies S. c. mindoensis is smaller than the nominate with hidden creamy white bases to the crest feathers. Both sexes of both subspecies have a dark brown iris, a dark horn to black bill with a paler base to the mandible, and bluish gray to gray legs and feet.

The olivaceous piha has a disjunct distribution. Subspecies S. c. mindoensis has the smaller and more northerly range of the two. It is found on the western slope of Colombia's Western Andes from Antioquia Department south into northwestern Ecuador's Pichincha Province. The nominate subspecies is found from the upper valley of the Magdalena River in far southern Colombia south on the eastern slope of the Andes through Ecuador slightly into Peru and separately in Peru from central Amazonas Department south to Huánuco Department. It inhabits humid montane forest in the subtropical zone, where it mostly occurs from the forest's understory to its mid-story. In elevation it ranges between 1,000 and 2,300 m (3,300 and 7,500 ft) in Colombia, between 1,000 and 1,800 m (3,300 and 5,900 ft) in Ecuador, and between 1,350 and 2,300 m (4,400 and 7,500 ft) in Peru.

The olivaceous piha feeds on fruit and large arthropods but details are lacking. It usually forages singly and occasionally joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It perches and moves quietly and inconspicuously, taking prey and plucking fruit while perched or while briefly hovering after a short flight. It also takes prey in mid-air.