Social Flycatcher

The social flycatcher is 16 to 18.5 cm (6.3 to 7.3 in) long and weighs 24 to 27 g (0.85 to 0.95 oz). The sexes have the same plumage, though females average slightly smaller than males. Adults of the nominate subspecies M. s. similis have a dark gray to brownish gray head with a mostly hidden bright red to orangish red patch in the center of the crown. They have a wide white supercilium that begins on the forehead and extends far past the eye. Their upperparts are mostly dull olive-green to brownish olive with a somewhat more grayish olive hindneck and grayish brown or grayish olive uppertail coverts. Their wings are deep grayish brown with pale grayish white edges on the inner secondaries and pale olivaceous edges on the rest of the flight feathers. Their wing coverts are olive to brownish olive with grayish white edges that sometimes show as two faint wing bars. Their tail is deep grayish brown with pale olive edges on the feathers. Their chin and throat are white to yellowish white and their underparts are bright yellow. Juveniles are similar to adults but with little or no red on the crown and wider rufous edges on the wing and tail feathers. The other subspecies of the social flycatcher are much like the nominate, mostly differing slightly in the tone of the crown patch and edges of the wing feathers. In addition, M. s. …

The subspecies of the social flycatcher are found thus:

M. s. primulus: western Mexico from southern Sonora south to northern Sinaloa M. s. hesperis: western Mexico from central Sinaloa and southern Zacatecas east to southwestern Puebla and south to southeastern Oaxaca and perhaps beyond M. s. texensis: from southwestern Tamaulipas in eastern Mexico south through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua into most of Costa Rica M. s. columbianus: from southwestern Costa Rica south through Panama into northern Colombia and northern Venezuela; in Colombia coastal and south through the Magdalena River valley to Huila Department and in Venezuela east to Sucre and south to northern Amazonas and northern Bolívar states M. s. similis: from Colombia east of the Eastern Andes across Amazonas and southern Bolívar in Venezuela into French Guiana and south through eastern Ecuador, northeastern and eastern Peru, much of Amazonian Brazil, and northern Bolivia M. s. grandis: from western Esmeraldas Province in western Ecuador south slightly into far northwestern Peru's Tumbes Department M. s. …

The social flycatcher feeds mostly on insects and also includes a significant amount of berries, fruits, and seeds in its diet. There are records of feeding on tadpoles. It most often forages in pairs and, for a time after the breeding season, in family groups. Outside the breeding season large numbers may share a fruiting tree. It rarely joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It perches in the open on a treetop or on the edge of vegetation at all levels from near the ground to the canopy of trees but most often at middle levels. It takes prey with sallies from the perch to the ground or vegetation and also takes it in mid-air by hawking. It takes fruit while perched or while briefly hovering. The social flycatcher has been observed foraging peacefully near common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) in the undergrowth, maybe even cooperating with the monkeys in flushing prey from hiding. Perhaps this behavior only occurs during the dry season, when fruits are scarce.