Gray Silky-flycatcher

The grey silky-flycatcher is 18.5 to 21 cm (7.3 to 8.3 in) long. It is a slender bird with a prominent crest and a long tail. Adult males of the nominate subspecies P. c. cinereus have dusky lores, a white patch above the lores, a thin white eye-ring, and a white or brownish white chin and cheeks on an otherwise blue-gray head and crest. Their upperparts are blue-gray. Their flight feathers are black. Their central pair of tail feathers are black and the rest have a black base, a white upper half, and black lower half. Their throat and breast are gray, their belly whitish, their flanks golden-olive or yellow, and their undertail coverts bright yellow. Adult females have a gray head and crest with a white eye-ring, grayish brown upperparts, brown sides and flanks, and a white belly. Both sexes have a dark iris, a black bill, and black legs and feet. Juveniles resemble adult females with paler underparts. Males of subspecies P. c. molybdophanes have deeper bluish gray upperparts than the nominate and have olive-green flanks. Females are overall darker than the nominate except for having the same bright yellow undertail coverts. Males of P. c. otofuscus have upperparts colored midway between the nominate's and molybdophanes's. They have darker ear coverts and the whitish of their belly is more extensive than the nominate's. …

The subspecies of the grey silky-flycatcher are found thus:

P. c. cinereus: from southern Coahuila, southern Nuevo León, and Jalisco south to southern and western Michoacán and Oaxaca in central and eastern Mexico P. c. otofuscus: southern Sonora, southwestern Chihuahua, eastern Sinaloa, western Durango, and western Zacatecas in northwestern Mexico P. c. pallescens: eastern Michoacán and Guerrero in southwestern Mexico P. c. molybdophanes: from Chiapas in southern Mexico south into south-central Guatemala The species has also been recorded as a vagrant in southern and western Texas. The grey silky-flycatcher inhabits pine, pine-oak, and juniper forest in the subtropical and temperate zones. It also occurs in pine savanna and rarely in cloudforest. Sources differ on its overall elevational range; one states it is 1,100 to 3,200 m (3,600 to 10,500 ft) and another mostly 1,000 to 3,500 m (3,300 to 11,500 ft) and lower in winter. In Guatemala it is found from 1,200 to 3,050 m (3,900 to 10,000 ft) but mostly above 1,700 m (5,600 ft).

The grey silky-flycatcher feeds on insects and small fruits. It particularly favors mistletoe (Loranthaceae) berries. It feeds on fruit by plucking while perched and takes insects in mid-air from a high perch. It often forages in flocks of up to 15 individuals.