Bulletin 437 - Brazil 2023 #18 - Flycatchers Part 1

 After 3 trips to Colombia with diminishing returns, it was time to go further afield. Pablo Flores the guide in Colombia is now leading trips to Brazil as well. So my birding buddy Martin Jackson and my daughter Chantel and I decided to go there. We visited the Pantanal, the Atlantic forest in the Sao Paulo area and had 1 day in the Chapada. The Pantanal is the largest wetland in the world, so it is teeming with wildlife. The Atlantic Forest is a unique ecosystem from sea level to about 1 mile elevation. It contains 800 species of birds (225 endemic) and 26 species of primates. Unfortunately it also contains 2 mega cities - Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and the resulting sprawl and clearing for agriculture since the Portuguese arrived 500 years ago, has wiped out 90%+ of the original forest. About 250 species of amphibians, birds and mammals have gone extinct in the past 400 years. The good news is that many preserves and parks have been set aside to try and preserve the remaining biodiversity.

The Tyrant Flycatcher family has the most species of any of the bird families (447 currently). So as before on other trips you find a lot of them. This trip to Brazil was no different 21 species of which 16 were new for me.

The 7.75" Brown-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus tyrannulus) is typical for this genus with the brown back and head, gray breast and yellow belly. This bird also can be seen in south Texas.

Brown-crested Flycatcher

His cousin is the 7" Swainson's Flycatcher (Myiarchus swainsoni). These birds are so similar that they are best separated by voice.

Swainson's Flycatcher

The 8" Crested Black Tyrant (Knipolegus lophotes) is an all black flycatcher with a wispy crest and a red eye.

Crested Black Tyrant 

His cousin is the 7" Velvety Black Tyrant (Knipolegus lophotes). The male has a bushy crest and red eye.

Velvety Black Tyrant - male

The female is similar but she has a rusty streaked throat.

Velvety Black Tyrant - female

The 6" Scarlet Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) should look familiar to all of us in the USA. It was one of the 3 species split from Vermilion Flycatcher.

Scarlet Flycatcher

The 6.5" Lesser Kiskadee (Philohydor lictor) is another bird that need sot be IDed by voice as there are many similarly colored species.

Lesser Kiskadee

The 7" Rufous Casiornis (Casiornis rufus) is an attractive reddish brown bird but lighter on the breast.

 Rufous Casiornis

The 8.25" Grey-hooded Attila (Attila rufus) is similar to the above bird but the head is gray. He is a Brazil endemic.

Grey-hooded Attila

The 7.75" Cattle Tyrant (Machetornis rixosa) is a commonly found bird in tropical America. He is usually on the ground.

Cattle Tyrant

The 3.75" Yellow-lored Tody-Flycatcher (Todirostrum poliocephalum) is an easy ID. He is another Brazil endemic species.

Yellow-lored Tody-Flycatcher

So with the 16 new flycatcher species on the trip, I have still only photographed 1/3 of the species in this largest family of birds.

I put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 149 of the 447 species of Tyrant Flycatchers

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2025 David McDonald

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Bulletin 199 - Panama #7 - Tyrant Flycatchers

The tyrannidae family, aka Tyrant Flycatchers or New World Flycatchers is the largest family of birds with about 420 species. Many of them are fairly drab, but some are spectacular like the Vermilion Flycatcher or Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. We saw more than a dozen species in Panama. Many of them look alike and have to be IDed by voice. The smallest of these flycatchers are the tiniest birds in the world next to hummers. The sexes are similar except where noted in the descriptions.

I will start with the kiskadees and similar colored birds. The Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus) is a stunning 8.5" bird, with brown and rufous wings, bright yellow underparts and striped head. This bird does occur in the USA in south Texas. On reviewing our photos, I guess we didn't take any as we had some from Texas, so here is the bird.

Great Kiskadee

The Lesser Kiskadee (Pitangus lictor) is similar, but only 6.5" in length and it has much smaller bill. It also has less rufous on the wings.


Lesser Kiskadee

Another similar bird is the Boat-billed Flycatcher (Megarhynchus pitangus). It is also 8.5" in length, but has an even heavier bill than the Greater Kiskadee and lacks the rufous on the wings.



Boat-billed Flycatcher

The 4th similar bird is the Social Flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis). It is the size of the Lesser Kiskadee, but the crown and sides of face are dark brownish gray rather than black and the back is more olive.

Social Flycatcher

The last of this coloration is the Rusty-margined Flycatcher (Myiozetetes cayanensis). It is smaller still at 6", but has the black head, brown back and some rufous on the wings.

Rusty-margined Flycatcher

The Streaked Flycatcher (Myiodynastes maculatus) is another large (8") flycatcher. It is IDed by the streaked back and underparts and a rufous tail.

Streaked Flycatcher

The much smaller (5.5") but similar Piratic Flycatcher (Legatus leucophaius) lacks the streaking on the back and rufous tail. It has a much smaller bill as well.

Piratic Flycatcher

The Common Tody-Flycatcher (Todirostrum cinereum) is a tiny (4") bird with a black face, dark gray head and back and bright yellow underparts.

Common Tody-Flycatcher

The myiarchus genus is well represented in North America. The Panama Flycatcher (Myiarchus panamensis) has the typical coloration with a brown back, yellow belly and gray head and breast.

Panama Flycatcher

The Paltry Tyrannulet (Zimmerius vilissimus) is a tiny (4") flycatcher best IDed by voice. But it does have yellow wing edges and gray underparts that differ from other tiny flycatchers.

Paltry Tyrannulet

Elaenias are a group of small flycatchers that can be IDed by the median crown stripe on their head. The Forest Elaenia (Myiopagis gaimardii) can be IDed by narrow bill and yellow wing bars and wing edges.

Forest Elaenia

The Long-tailed Tyrant (Colonia colonus) is small (4.5") flycatcher with 2 elongated tail feathers (longer in males). It is black with a white stripe across the face and another down the back.

Long-tailed Tyrant

The Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus) is gray with yellow underparts. It lacks the white tail edges of the Western Kingbird which is the only other bird of this coloration in Panama. Also, the notched tail is diagnostic. This bird occurs along the southern border of USA.

Tropical Kingbird

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2014 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.