Data Zone
Justification of Red List category
This species has a very large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km² combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size may be moderately small to large, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
Population justification
Partners in Flight estimated the population to number fewer than 50,000 mature individuals (A. Panjabi in litt. 2008, 2017), thus it is placed in the band 20,000-49,999 mature individuals here.
Trend justification
The population is thought to be in decline owing to ongoing habitat destruction, but the rate of decline has not been estimated directly. Tracewski et al. (2016) measured the forest loss within the species’s range between 2000 and 2012 as c. 287 km2. This roughly equates to a rate of forest loss of 4.0% over three generations (10.8 years) for this species. Belted Flycatcher depends on dense woodland and the only known threat is habitat loss. We can tentatively assume that the population has declined at the same rate as the forest cover, and thus the species is inferred to have undergone a reduction of <10% over the past 10.8 years.
Belted Flycatcher occurs in southern Mexico (Chiapas), Guatemala, northwestern El Salvador (Howell and Webb 1995), and has recently been reported from southwestern Honduras (Haldeman 2015). The species is uncommon, locally distributed and generally not well known (del Hoyo et al. 2004).
The species occupies the understorey of dense, scrubby forests and woodland, preferably with oaks (Quercus), between 1,200 and 2,000 m (Howell and Webb 1995). It feeds on insects, searching from a low branch and then sallying out to capture its prey in the air or from foliage (del Hoyo et al. 2004). Its nest, in which it lays three eggs, is a cup made of fine grass and other plant fibres, situated in a fork of a shrub (del Hoyo et al. 2004).
Forests are subject to intense clearance throughout the region, owing principally to coffee cultivation (Stattersfield et al. 1998) and logging, as well as uncontrolled fires (del Hoyo et al. 2004). The species’s preferred habitats, oak forest and woodland, have suffered heavy deforestation throughout the range (K. Eisermann in litt. 2010).
Conservation Actions Underway
No targeted conservation action is known for this species; however, it occurs in at least El Sumidero National Park (Chiapas, Mexico) and Montecristo National Park (El Salvador) (K. Eisermann in litt. 2010).
Text account compilers
Taylor, J., O'Brien, A., Hermes, C., Sharpe, C.J., Isherwood, I.
Contributors
Eisermann, K. & Panjabi, A.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Belted Flycatcher Xenotriccus callizonus. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/belted-flycatcher-xenotriccus-callizonus on 23/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/11/2024.