Pyrocephalus
Scarlet flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Tyrannidae
Genus: Pyrocephalus
Gould, 1838
Type species
Muscicapa coronata[1]
Gmelin, 1789
Species

See text

Pyrocephalus is a genus of bird in the tyrant flycatcher family, Tyrannidae.

The genus was introduced by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould in 1839 in Charles Darwin's Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle.[2][a] The type species was designated as the scarlet flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840.[6][7] The name Pyrocephalus combines the Ancient Greek purrhos meaning "flame-coloured" or "red" and -kephalos meaning "-headed".[8]

Taxonomy

The tyrant flycatcher family, the Tyrannidae, is a group of passerine birds present only in the New World, and its members are generally drab in coloration.[9] Within it, the subfamily Fluvicolinae comprises the genera Pyrocephalus, Contopus, Empidonax, and Sayornis. They likely shared a common ancestor in the Contopus or Xenotriccus genus before diversifying. The Pyrocephalus are most closely related to the Sayornis in terms of morphology, but genetic analysis shows that they may be more closely related to the Fluvicola.[10] The vermilion flycatcher likely evolved around 1.15–million years ago (mya), with the species on the Galápagos Islands having split off around 0.82–mya. The South American species/subspecies diverged about 0.56–mya.[11]

Species

The genus contains four species:[12]

Image Scientific name Common Name Distribution
Pyrocephalus rubinus Scarlet flycatcher Southeastern Bolivia and Brazil, Paraguay to Argentina and Uruguay
Pyrocephalus obscurus Vermilion flycatcher Almost all of Mexico; it extends north into the southwestern United States, and south to scattered portions of Central America, parts of northwestern and central South America
Pyrocephalus nanus Darwin's flycatcher Galápagos Islands
— ✝Pyrocephalus dubius San Cristóbal flycatcher San Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos Islands (prior to extinction)

Notes

  1. ^ Some taxonomists date the publication to 1838.[3] Although the title page to Aves. Part III is dated 1841, the volume was issued in five parts. Page 44 containing the text was issued in 1839 but plates VI and VII were issued in 1838 and have captions that include the generic name Pyrocephalus.[4][5]

References

  1. ^ "Tyrannidae". aviansystematics.org. The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  2. ^ Gould, John (1841). Darwin, Charles (ed.). The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, Part III. Birds. London: Smith, Elder and Company. p. 44.
  3. ^ Dickinson, E.C.; Christidis, L., eds. (2014). The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. Vol. 2: Passerines (4th ed.). Eastbourne, UK: Aves Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-9568611-2-2.
  4. ^ Steinheimer, F.; Dickinson, E.C.; Walters, M.P. (2006). "The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, Part III. Birds. New avian names, their authorship and the dates". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 126 (2): 171–193 [184].
  5. ^ Dickinson, E.C.; Overstreet, L.K.; Dowsett, R.J.; Bruce, M.D. (2011). Priority! The Dating of Scientific Names in Ornithology: a Directory to the literature and its reviewers. Northampton, UK: Aves Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-9568611-1-5.
  6. ^ Gray, George Robert (1840). A List of the Genera of Birds : with an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus. Vol. 8. London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 30.
  7. ^ Traylor, Melvin A. Jr, ed. (1979). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 8. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 149–150.
  8. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 326. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  9. ^ del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Christie, D. (editors). (2004) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 9: Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails. Lynx Edicions. ISBN 84-87334-69-5
  10. ^ Ellison, Kevin; Wolf, Blair; Jones, Stephanie (March 2020). Poole, A. F. (ed.). "Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus), version 1.0". birdsoftheworld.org. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. doi:10.2173/bow.verfly.01. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  11. ^ Carmi, Ore; Witt, Christopher C.; Jaramillo, Alvaro; Dumbacher, John P. (2016-09-01). "Phylogeography of the Vermilion Flycatcher species complex: Multiple speciation events, shifts in migratory behavior, and an apparent extinction of a Galápagos-endemic bird species". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 102: 152–173. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2016.05.029. ISSN 1055-7903. PMID 27233443.
  12. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Tyrant flycatchers". World Bird List Version 9.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 29 June 2019.

External links

Genera of passerines and their extinct allies
Taxon identifiers
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