Highland Elaenia

elaenia obscura

Tyrannidae,Elaeninae · Tyrannulets

Disc 2 · 2001 listed
Disc 3 · 2006 listed
Disc 1 · 2011 listed

The account

Description

18 cm. A big and dark elaenia without an obvious crest which looks therefore round headed with a short bill. White eye ring. Above olive-brown, the wings blackish with two yellow wing bars. Below dark olive-brown, the throat and belly yellowish.

The disc records this picture against the bird without a caption. Disc 3 · 2006

Where it was recorded

The discs' own checklists select Highland Elaenia at 14 localities.

Historical checklist localities on the disc's own area map — the red dots the original program drew, placed by its recovered projection. Not a range map: it shows the places whose checklists record the bird, nothing more. 1 has no usable coordinate and is listed below unplotted.

Boraceia BOSB
Campos do Jordão CASB
Fazenda Campininha FZSB
Fazenda Intervales FASB
Itirapina ITSB
Jureia-Peruibe JUSB position not recoverable
Nucleo Sta. Virginia NUSP
Parati PARB
Pariquera-Abaixo PESB
PE Jacupiranga PJSB
Reserva Ecológica Guapiacú RERB
Santa Barbara do Rio Pardo SNSB
Serra dos Orgãos SRRB
Serra dos Tucanos SDTC

How the map was made

The original program computed each red dot at display time from the locality's coordinates, using its map library and one of five base maps drawn for the screen widths of the day. That library's projection — an oblique rotation of the sphere about the map's own centre, 23.7°S 47.4°W — was read from the program and checked against the graticule the same program drew into the base maps: it reproduces every grid intersection to within about a pixel. The dots here use that projection on the 1280-pixel base map, with the coordinates the discs record. Nothing was placed by hand, no modern map data was used, and a place whose coordinate is incomplete, out of range or beyond the map's edge is listed rather than guessed.

The discs carried location maps only; none shows a distribution or range.

Voice

A double syllabled 'chiarrr chiarrr.....' or 'tchiurrr tchiurrr'. A simple 'burrrrr', a high strident 'chiiii' somewhat descending in pitch. Song (?) a burry 'chorrreee' or 'chorrrr' or 'chorrreee chi chi chit' (cut #6). Another song a 5-6 syllable burry °Chirr e do ri do rit' (³⁸ tracks #1 and 2 of this species).

Behavior

Rather quiet and retiring, often staying within the foliage of trees and scrub.

Habitat and status

Not uncommon at edge of humid forest and dryer forest, secondary scrub and small trees.

Distribution

Throughout, up to 2000 meters in the Serras. In Estado São Paulo reported from Iguape, Mogi-Guassú, Itararé, Ipiranga, Campos de Jordão, São Miguel Arcanjo, Cananéia, and from as far north as Franca, Cubatão and Itatiba. From Estado de Rio de Janeiro reported from the Serra Mantiqueira and Serra dos Orgãos.

Decoded from the disc's own bytes. Each part is shown under the heading the disc files it under, and the wording, spelling and punctuation are the author's.

Vocalizations

Calls. Serra da Canastra, 11/10/98. Cloudy, 25°C. Bushes in open country.
Song. Serra do Cipo, 11/16/98. Sunny, 20°C. Open scrub. With Elaenia chiriquensis.
Call. Serra da Mantiqueira, 11/18/98. Sunny, 20°C. High altitude scrub.
Call. Cornell Cat#20058. Fazenda São Francisco, Lagoinhas, Tijucas, Parana, 12/29/78. With Aramides saracura. Recording by W. Belton.
Call. Cornell Cat#18064. Ingenio, Amazonas, Peru. Recording by J. P. O'Neill.
Song?. Cornell Cat#57839. Parque National Calilegua, Jujui, Argentina, 7/13/90. With Todirostrum plumbeiceps, Micrastur semitorquatus. Recording by D. W. Finch.

Recording files on the disc

10394.mp3 Calls. Serra da Canastra, 11/10/98. Cloudy, 25°C. Bushes in open country.
11723.mp3 Song. Serra do Cipo, 11/16/98. Sunny, 20°C. Open scrub. With Elaenia chiriquensis.
3698.wav Call. Serra da Mantiqueira, 11/18/98. Sunny, 20°C. High altitude scrub.
8013.wav Call. Cornell Cat#20058. Fazenda São Francisco, Lagoinhas, Tijucas, Parana, 12/29/78. With Aramides saracura. Recording by W. Belton.
13563.wav Call. Cornell Cat#18064. Ingenio, Amazonas, Peru. Recording by J. P. O'Neill.
13410.wav Song?. Cornell Cat#57839. Parque National Calilegua, Jujui, Argentina, 7/13/90. With Todirostrum plumbeiceps, Micrastur semitorquatus. Recording by D. W. Finch.

Across the three discs

The work was published on three discs — Disc 2 in 2001, Disc 3 in 2006 and Disc 1 in 2011. Where they differ, that is a difference between historical releases, and it is never merged away. The 2011 disc is not treated as correcting the earlier ones.

Which discs list this bird

Disc 2 · 2001 — in this disc's bird list
Disc 3 · 2006 — in this disc's bird list
Disc 1 · 2011 — in this disc's bird list

How that was established

Disc 2 · 2001: aux_nonzero;local_checklist_byte45_flag_1
Disc 3 · 2006: aux_nonzero;local_checklist_byte45_flag_1
Disc 1 · 2011: aux_nonzero;local_checklist_byte45_flag_1

The disc's own record fields that place the bird on its list: a non-empty entry in the species table, and the byte that marks it as selected on a local checklist.

The account in the Disc 1 · 2011 revision

The 2011 Disc 1 revision carries this account text unchanged from the Disc 3 release.

The work's own taxonomy

The discs carried three parallel name schemes. All three are shown as recovered; none is a modern taxonomy and none has been updated.

Scheme	Scientific name	English name	Family
WORLD	elaenia obscura	Highland Elaenia	Tyrannidae,Elaeninae
CLEMENTS	elaenia obscura	Highland Elaenia	Tyrannidae,Elaeninae
AOU_HM	elaenia obscura	Highland Elaenia	Tyrannidae,Elaeninae

Source details

Identifier on this site: seb_species_0198
Account identifier: seb_account_0198
Account number on the disc: 198
Source edition: CD03 / 2006 package
Original taxonomy scheme: WORLD
Structure status: heuristic; decoded_account_text and segment JSON remain authoritative