Yellow-browed Tyrant

Open Bird Bucket List ↗

Quick Facts

  • Scientific Name: Satrapa icterophrys
  • Spanish Name: Atrapamoscas cejiamarillo
  • Family: Tyrannidae
  • Known Nicknames: Yellow-browed Tyrant, Yellow-browed Satrapa
  • Average Length: 13–14 cm / 5.1–5.5 in
  • Average Weight: 12–15 g / 0.42–0.53 oz
  • Wingspan: 22–25 cm / 8.7–9.8 in
  • Key Feature: Prominent yellow supercilium (eyebrow) contrasting with dark crown
  • Primary Diet: Insectivore
  • Range: Central South America (eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, southern Brazil, Uruguay, northern Argentina)
  • Habitat: Open woodlands, savannas, gallery forests, and edges of marshes
  • Social Structure: Solitary or in pairs
  • Nesting/Breeding: Open cup nest in tree fork or shrub
  • Conservation Status: Least Concern (LC)
  • Population Trend: Stable

The Yellow-browed Tyrant (*Satrapa icterophrys*) is a small, striking passerine bird found in South America’s open woodlands and savannas, from Colombia to Argentina. Its most distinctive feature is a bold, bright yellow eyebrow stripe that contrasts sharply with its otherwise plain olive-brown upperparts and pale yellow underparts. A special trait is its restless, flycatcher-like behavior: it frequently perches on exposed branches or fence posts, sallying out to snatch insects mid-air with a sharp snap of its bill. Despite its tyrant-flycatcher family ties, it lacks the aggressive demeanor of larger relatives, instead emitting a soft, trilling song that adds a gentle charm to its grassland habitats.

Fun Facts

Despite its name, the Yellow-browed Tyrant doesn't actually have a yellow brow—its most striking feature is a bold, bright yellow stripe that runs *under* the eye, giving it a perpetually quizzical expression. It is a master of the "sally-and-glean" hunting technique, launching itself from a low perch to snatch insects mid-air, then often returning to the exact same twig. A quirky twist: during the breeding season, males perform a peculiar “wing-flutter” display where they rapidly vibrate their wings while perched, a behavior thought to both attract mates and signal territory ownership. Unusually for a tyrant flycatcher, it frequently joins mixed-species foraging flocks in the undergrowth, acting as a noisy sentinel that alerts other birds to predators.

Habitats & Distribution

The Yellow-browed Tyrant is found in central and southern South America, with its range extending from southeastern Brazil through Paraguay, Uruguay, and northeastern Argentina, and reaching as far south as central Argentina and possibly into eastern Bolivia. Its habitat is strongly associated with open or semi-open environments near water, such as the edges of rivers, streams, ponds, and marshes. It commonly inhabits gallery forests, wet grasslands, and scrubby areas with scattered trees, often perching conspicuously on exposed branches or fences. During the austral winter, some southern populations migrate northward, but the species is generally resident in much of its core range.

Behaviours & Reproduction

The Yellow-browed Tyrant is typically solitary or found in pairs during the breeding season, with a simple social structure centered on a monogamous bond. Mating involves the male performing short, fluttering display flights from a prominent perch, often accompanied by sharp vocalizations, to attract a female and defend a small territory. The female constructs a small, cup-shaped nest made of plant fibers and spiderwebs, usually placed in a fork of a tree or shrub. She alone incubates the clutch of two to three eggs for about 15–16 days, though both parents feed the nestlings. A unique reproductive strategy is their reliance on semi-open habitats near water, such as river edges or marshes, where they glean insects from foliage and sally out to catch prey, ensuring a steady food supply for their young. No cooperative breeding or brood parasitism is reported, and they typically raise a single brood per season.

Diet

The Yellow-browed Tyrant is primarily an insectivore, with its diet consisting almost entirely of small arthropods such as flies, beetles, caterpillars, and spiders, which it captures through short sallies from an exposed perch. An interesting behavioral fact is that it often employs a "flycatcher" technique, darting out to snatch prey mid-air before returning to the same perch, and it has been observed foraging in mixed-species flocks to exploit disturbed insects. Additionally, during the non-breeding season in its southern range, it will occasionally supplement its diet with small berries and fruits, though insects remain the dominant food source year-round.

Colors

The Yellow-browed Tyrant has olive-green upperparts and bright yellow underparts, with a distinct long, pale yellow supercilium (eyebrow) that contrasts with a dark eye stripe. Its wings are dark with two narrow white wing bars, and the tail is blackish with white outer edges. It lacks camouflage adaptations, instead using its conspicuous yellow and green coloration to signal in open habitats.

Distribution Map

Places linked to this species. A sighting is never guaranteed.