Urich's tyrannulet (''Phyllomyias urichi'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family Tyrannidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

s. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. It is a very rare species that had previously only been seen three times: once in 1899, a second time in the 1940s, and a third time in 2005. In May 2021, an expedition to rediscover the species was undertaken in order to verify that it had not yet gone extinct. However, the locality the species was sighted at in 2005 had been deforested by that point, and several other potential habitats had also been degraded. However, a thickly forested mountainside near Yucucual,

Monagas ) , anthem = '' Himno del Estado Monagas'' , image_map = Monagas in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_m ...

was identified in a photo on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

as a potential habitat for the species. The expedition to this area was successful in spotting 2 different pairs of ''P. urichi'', marking the first observation of the species in over a decade and the first clear photos and sound recordings ever taken of the species. It is olive-green in color and has a shrill call. Ornithologist David Ascanio, who led the team that rediscovered the species, has described it as resembling a "little tiny Shrek" due to its coloration.

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.
Urich's tyrannulet Birds of the Venezuelan Coastal Range Endemic birds of Venezuela Urich's tyrannulet Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Tyrannidae-stub