One-colored becard

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One-colored becard (Pachyramphus homochrous)

The one-colored becard is a small bird in the tityras and becards family. It lives in Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. It measures about 16.5 cm (6.5 in) long and weighs around 35 g.

Appearance
- Males: dark slaty gray head and upperparts, slightly darker crown; wings and tail are dark gray; underparts are a lighter gray. Sometimes a faint pinkish wash on the throat.
- Females: crown, upperparts, and tail are rufous-chestnut to tawny; wings have cinnamon-edged primaries and rufous secondaries; face has a buff-cinnamon tone with a small whitish spot above the lores; underparts are buffy cinnamon.

Subspecies
- Three subspecies: homochrous (nominate), quimarinus, and canescens. They are similar but have slight color differences.

Where it lives
- The nominate subspecies ranges from central/eastern Panama through parts of Colombia and into western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. Quimarinus is in northwestern Colombia. Canescens is in northeastern Colombia and in Venezuela near the Perijá area and Lake Maracaibo.
- Habitat includes tropical forests and forest edges: humid evergreen forests, dry deciduous forests, gallery forests, and secondary forests. It also occurs in clearings and scrublands with tall trees.
- Elevation: usually from sea level to about 900 m, but up to 1,500 m in Ecuador (and up to about 1,000 m in some other countries).

Behavior
- It is a year-round resident and eats insects and fruit.
- It usually forages in pairs, sometimes alone, and often joins mixed-species feeding flocks.
- Foraging happens from the forest mid-story to the subcanopy, often near forest edges.

Breeding
- Very little is known. Nests found in southwestern Ecuador in February–March are irregular ball-shaped nests hanging from a branch 4–14 m above the ground, made from dry grass and weeds and lined with feathers and soft plant material.
- Clutch size is 3–4 eggs. Incubation and exact fledgling times are not well documented; fledging is estimated about 24–29 days after hatch.

Song
- The usual song is a loud, variable, sharp chattering sequence. It also gives squeaky, high-pitched calls.

Conservation status
- The one-colored becard is listed as Least Concern. It has a large range and an estimated population of at least 50,000 mature individuals, which is believed to be decreasing. It is locally common in parts of its range and occurs in several protected areas, especially in Ecuador. No major threats have been identified.