Sooty-crowned Flycatcher Myiarchus phaeocephalus

Fairly large flycatcher found mainly in dry forest in western Ecuador and northwestern Peru. It has a gray-brown crown (often raised to look “bushy”), an ashy throat, and a yellow belly. Dark head helps distinguish it from kingbirds. This species is one of many in the genus Myiarchus, members of which are notoriously difficult to identify by plumage alone; this is the only one in most of its range that prefers dry forest, but it overlaps with Brown-crested Flycatcher in the Marañon drainage. Sooty-crowned has a grayer crown and more chestnut in the wings and tail. Calls include a nasal, whiny whistle, a short rasp, and a creaky “wi-dit.”