Lemon-chested Greenlet

The lemon-chested greenlet is 10 to 13 cm (3.9 to 5.1 in) long and weighs 11 to 14 g (0.39 to 0.49 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies H. t. thoracicus have an ochraceous olive forehead, a dull grayish olive crown, and a wide grayish nape collar. They have grayish lores and sides of the head with a greenish tinge on the ear coverts. Their upperparts are bright olive that often has a yellowish tinge. Their wings' coverts and flight feathers are dull blackish gray with wide bright olive to yellowish green edges on the latter. Their tail is also dull blackish with wide bright olive to yellowish green feather edges. Their chin and throat are grayish to grayish white and their breast bright yellow. The rest of their underparts are pale creamy buff to whitish with a variable yellow tinge on the flanks, vent, and undertail coverts. Subspecies H. t. aemulus has less gray on the crown and more buffy throat and underparts than the nominate. H. t. griseiventris has a gray hindcrown, a gray throat, a greenish yellow breast, and gray lower underparts. Juveniles of all subspecies are essentially duller versions of the adults. Adults of all subspecies have a whitish to bright white iris with sometimes a yellow to pinkish tinge. They have a gray to dark maxilla, a white to pinkish mandible, and gray to pinkish legs and feet. …

The lemon-chested greenlet has a disjunct distribution, with the nominate subspecies completely separate from the other two. The subspecies are found thus:

H. t. aemulus: from extreme southeastern Colombia intermittently south through eastern Ecuador and eastern Peru into northern Bolivia H. t. griseiventris: Bolívar state in eastern Venezuela, east across the Guianas, and much of northern and central Amazonian Brazil H. t. thoracicus: eastern Brazil intermittently from southern Bahia south to northeastern São Paulo state The lemon-chested greenlet inhabits a wide variety of wooded landscapes. These include terra firme, várzea forest, the transitional forest between those two, gallery forest, restinga, cloudforest, and wooded urban areas. In elevation it ranges in Brazil mostly from sea level to 600 m (2,000 ft) though locally higher. It reaches 500 m (1,600 ft) in Colombia, 400 m (1,300 ft) in Ecuador, 850 m (2,800 ft) in Peru, and 700 m (2,300 ft) in Venezuela.

The lemon-chested greenlet feeds on arthropods and small fruits. It typically forages singly or in pairs and regularly joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It forages actively from the forest's mid-story to its canopy, taking food from foliage and flowers and often hanging upside-down to do so.