The species was identified as Elaenia spectabilis, and not E. flavogaster, because it has three wing-bars and a dark crest (nearly no white). Furthermore, the vocalizations are like various recordings of Elaenia spectabilis in the xeno-canto database.

The local Elaenias often (nearly always?) exhibit a clearly visible crest, as in the photo. This differs from the description of Ridgely and Tudor 1994, who wrote: "... usually no crest shows". The figure in HBW 9 (plate 17 nr. 23) shows a bird nearly without crest, and according to the text, the Large Elaenia has a "slight crested appearance" (Hosner 2004).

In general, I had the impression that E. spectabilis of the Northeast of Brazil has not received much attention from ornithologists. For example, the distribution maps in Ridgely and Tudor 1994, and in HBW 9, do not include the Northeast in the breeding range. But this common (!) species breeds here, as the photo above shows.

See also vocalizations.