Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

About the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet

The Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet is a specialty bird with a specialty name - the smallest flycatcher in the United States, a drab gray-olive mite with a wispy crest, pale eyebrow, and stubby bill, whose "beardless" refers to its lack of the rictal bristles most flycatchers wear at the bill base. It looks and acts more like a kinglet or verdin than a proper flycatcher, which is exactly the identification trap.

It gleans rather than sallies, working methodically through mesquite, ebony, and hackberry foliage for insects, small caterpillars, and berries, usually alone and easily lost among the more energetic birds around it. The voice gives it away: a thin, descending series of clear whistled notes, surprisingly loud for the size of the singer, and often the only evidence the bird is present.

The nest is a hidden globe with a side entrance, frequently tucked into clumps of mistletoe or dense thorny tangles - another habit more like a verdin than a flycatcher.

This tropical species reaches the United States only in southern Arizona and deep south Texas, where it is an uncommon resident of the Rio Grande Valley's remaining native woodlands. Finding one is a matter of learning the whistle and then patiently tracking it through the mesquite - a modest-looking bird, but a genuine south Texas prize.