Pacific royal flycatcher  (Onychorhynchus occidentalis)

Classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List 2006 (1).

Like the other royal flycatchers of the neotropics, this species has a large, brilliantly-coloured, fan-shaped crest, which is usually flat but occasionally erected to reveal its dazzling scarlet colour (yellow in the female) ornately decorated with black and steel-blue markings (2) (3) (4). The rest of the plumage is rather unspectacular in comparison, being uniformly tawny-brown on upperparts, dull yellow-orange on underparts, rufous on the rump and tail and whitish on the throat (2) (3).

Restricted to small, isolated forest patches in west Ecuador (from Esmeraldas south to El Oro) and immediately adjacent extreme north-west Peru (Tumbes) (2) (3).

Recorded from both primary and secondary degraded humid and deciduous lowland forest up to 1,200 m, though intact, moister forest is thought to be relied on during the breeding season (2) (3).

As with other royal flycatchers, the Pacific royal flycatcher is thought to feed on insects, particularly large flying insects such as dragonflies, which are snapped up in flight or gleaned from foliage (3). Although usually solitary or in pairs (5), these birds have also frequently been observed in small, mixed-species flocks (2).

Nests are typically suspended from overhanging branches and vines above shady streams, and have been found between January and April, with a juvenile collected in May (2) (5). The territory is defended by the male while the female incubates the eggs and tends to the chicks (3). During display, performed during courtship and aggressive encounters, the crest is erected and fully spread, while the head is rhythmically swayed from side to side and the bill is slowly opened and closed to reveal a bright mouth lining (3) (4).

Ongoing, rapid deforestation, particularly in lowland areas, has reduced the Pacific royal flycatcher’s now small and severely fragmented range, and will soon remove almost all unprotected forest. Meanwhile, persistent grazing by goats and cattle prevents forest regeneration. Even ‘protected areas’ are not immune to these threats, with logging continuing to occur in Cordillera de Molleturo Protection Forest, and Machalilla National Park and Tumbes Reserved Zone being affected by illegal settling and deforestation, livestock-grazing, and habitat clearance by people with land rights (2).

The Pacific royal flycatcher is known to occur in six protected areas, including Río Palenque Scientific Centre, Jauneche Biological Reserve Station, Machalilla National Park, Cerro Blanco Protection Forest and Manglares-Churute Ecological Reserve, Ecuador, and Tumbes Reserved Zone, Peru, and probably also within Cordillera de Molleturo Protection Forest, Cañar, Ecuador (2) (3). A reforestation project within the partially-forested Chongón-Colonche Protection Forest may support the species and benefit this striking bird (2) (3).

View information on this species at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

For more information on the Pacific royal flycatcher see:

• BirdLife International:
  http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=4236&m=0