Chocolate-vented Tyrant

The chocolate-vented tyrant is 20 to 23 cm (7.9 to 9.1 in) long and weighs about 77 g (2.7 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly ashy gray face with blackish in front of the eye and on the ear coverts. Their upperparts are brownish gray. Their wing coverts are mostly white with pale sandy brown edges on the greater coverts. Their primaries are black. Their secondaries have rufous bases and wide white tips and their tertials are white with pale sandy brown edges. The white and rufous of the wings shows dramatically in flight. Their notched tail is mostly black with white outer webs on the outermost feathers. Their throat and upper breast are gray and the rest of their underparts are cinnamon. They have a dark iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet. Juveniles have a rufous tinge on the ear coverts and their gray underparts have wide darker gray streaks.

The chocolate-vented tyrant is found from Córdoba Province in north central Argentina east across southern Uruguay and south through Argentina into both Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. In addition, the SACC has records of it as a vagrant in far southern Brazil. The SACC also has unconfirmed records from Paraguay so it calls the species hypothetical in that country. The species inhabits open and semi-open grasslands, brushy steppe, and agricultural fields and pastures. In elevation it mostly ranges up to about 500 m (1,600 ft) but locally reaches 1,500 m (4,900 ft).

The chocolate-vented tyrant feeds mostly on insects and also includes small lizards in its diet. In the breeding season it forages mostly in pairs but in winter is usually in small flocks. It is mostly terrestrial, walking or running with pauses to scan or capture prey, but it will perch on low bushes or fence posts. When it does fly, its flight is fast and direct.