Wildlife:A Social Flycatcher Rests On A Structure On Lake Atitlan Guatemala Stock Photo

The social flycatcher Myiozetetes similis is a passerine bird from the Americas, a member of the large tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. It is sometimes split into two species with the social flycatcher, Myiozetetes texensis, from Costa Rica northwards to Mexico and the vermilion-crowned flycatcher, M. similis proper, from southwest Costa Rica across South America. Social flycatchers breed in plantations, pasture with some trees, and open woodland from northwestern Mexico south to northeastern Peru, southern Brazil and northwestern Argentina. It is a common and wide-ranging species and thus not considered threatened by the IUCN. They like to perch openly in trees, several meters above ground. From such perches they will sally out for considerable distances to catch insects in flight, to which purpose they utilize a range of aerobatic maneuvers. They also regularly hover and glean for prey and small berries, which they seek out and also utilize in human-modified habitat such as secondary forest or urban parks and gardens, and will pick off prey from the ground and even enter shallow waters to feed on aquatic invertebrates, tadpoles and occasionally small fish. The nest, built by the female in a bush, tree or on a building, is a large roofed structure of stems and straw, which for protection is often built near a wasp, bee or ant nest, or the nest of another tyrant flycatcher. The nest site is often near or over water.