White-throated Kingbird

The white-throated kingbird is 20 to 21 cm (7.9 to 8.3 in) long and weighs 35 to 38 g (1.2 to 1.3 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly pale gray head with a partially hidden pale orange or yellowish patch in the center of the crown. They have a dusky band from the lores to the ear coverts that forms a "mask". Their upperparts are mostly bright olive green. Their wings are dull blackish brown with pale edges on the coverts and secondaries. Their tail is black and notched. Their throat is white and their underparts bright yellow with a very faint tinge of olive on the breast. They have a dark iris, a stout dark bill, and blackish legs and feet.

The white-throated kingbird's full range has not been firmly established. It is definitely found from eastern Ecuador and eastern Peru east through northern Bolivia, southern Venezuela, and Guyana and Suriname into much of Brazil. In Brazil its range's eastern edge roughly extends from Amapá south through Pará, Tocantins, and western Bahia and Minas Gerais into Mato Grosso do Sul and São Paulo. McMullan's field guide to Colombia includes the species; the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC) has no confirmed records there and so classes it as hypothetical. The SACC also classes it as hypothetical in Argentina and as a vagrant in French Guiana. The white-throated kingbird inhabits a variety of lowland tropical landscapes, most of which are fairly open and shrubby. These include cerrado, savannah, the edges of gallery forest, and stands of moriche and sometimes other palms. In all cases it is usually found near water. During the non-breeding season it appears to use other habitats as well including suburban and urban areas, but still tends to be near water. In elevation it ranges in Brazil from sea level to 1,000 m (3,300 ft). In Ecuador the few records are below 300 m (1,000 ft). There are sight records in Venezuela as high as 900 m (3,000 ft).

The white-throated kingbird feeds on insects, taking them in mid-air with sallies from a perch that is typically about 3 or 4 m (10 or 13 ft) above the ground.