White-rumped Monjita

The white-rumped monjita is 19 to 20 cm (7.5 to 7.9 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly white head with a pearly gray nape. Their upperparts are mostly brownish gray with a white rump. The basal half of their tail is white and the rest black. Their wings are blackish with a white band at the base of the flight feathers that shows as a stripe in flight. Their inner secondaries and tertials also have a white patch. Their underparts are entirely white. They have a dark iris, a black bill, and dusky blackish legs and feet.

The white-rumped monjita is found in Brazil from the lower Amazon River in Pará and Maranhão south to Paraná and occasionally beyond, and west to southern Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. Its range continues into northern and central Bolivia and northeastern Paraguay. The SACC also has records of it as a vagrant in northern Argentina. The white-rumped monjita inhabits open and semi-open landscapes such as savanna and grasslands with some bushes and trees, and is usually found near water. It often occurs around isolated human dwellings and on the outskirts of towns. In elevation it ranges up to about 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

The white-rumped monjita feeds on insects, though details are lacking. It usually forages in pairs, perching somewhat tamely in the open on fence posts, wires, and bushes. It drops from the perch to the ground to capture prey and also hovers before dropping.