Scarlet flycatcher

The scarlet flycatcher was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.{{ cite book | last=Buffon | first=Georges-Louis Leclerc de | author-link=Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon | year=1779 | title=Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux | volume=8 | place=Paris | publisher=De L'Imprimerie Royale | pages=351–352 | chapter=Le rubin ou gobe-mouche rouge huppé de la Rivière des Amazones | language=fr | chapter-url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42286856 }} The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text.{{ cite book | last1=Buffon | first1=Georges-Louis Leclerc de | author1-link=Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon | last2=Martinet | first2=François-Nicolas | author2-link=François-Nicolas Martinet | last3=Daubenton | first3=Edme-Louis | author3-link=Edme-Louis Daubenton | last4=Daubenton | first4=Louis-Jean-Marie | author4-link=Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton | year=1765–1783 | chapter=Gobe-mouche rouge hupé | title=Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle | volume=7 | place=Paris | publisher=De L'Imprimerie Royale | at=Plate 675 Fig. 2 | chapter-url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35219175 }} Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Muscicapa rubinus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées.{{cite book | last=Boddaert | first=Pieter | author-link=Pieter Boddaert | year=1783 | title=Table des planches enluminéez d'histoire naturelle de M. D'Aubenton : avec les denominations de M.M. de Buffon, Brisson, Edwards, Linnaeus et Latham, precedé d'une notice des principaux ouvrages zoologiques enluminés | place=Utrecht | page=42, Number 675 Fig. 2 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27822662 | language=fr }} The type locality was restricted to Tefé on the Amazon River by the American ornithologist John T. Zimmer in 1941.{{ cite journal | last=Zimmer | first=John Todd | author-link=John T. Zimmer | year=1941 | title=Studies of Peruvian birds. No. 38, The genera Oreotriccus, Tyrannulus, Acrochordopus, Ornithion, Leptopogon, Mionectes, Pipromorpha, and Pyrocephalus | journal=American Museum Novitates | issue=1126 | location=New York | publisher=American Museum Natural History | page=16 | hdl=2246/4748 }} The scarlet flycatcher is now placed in the genus Pyrocephalus that was introduced in 1839 by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould.{{ cite book | last=Gould | first=John | author-link=John Gould | editor-last=Darwin | editor-first=Charles | editor-link=Charles Darwin | year=1841 | title=The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, Part III. Birds | location=London | publisher=Smith, Elder and Company | page=44 | url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/40300059 }} The generic name combines the Ancient Greek purrhos meaning "flame-colored" or "red" and -kephalos meaning "-headed". The specific epithet rubinus is Medieval Latin for "ruby-colored".{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | url=https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling/page/n326 326], 340 }}

The further taxonomy of the scarlet flycatcher is unsettled. It was long considered to be the nominate subspecies of the vermilion flycatcher sensu lato. As of early 2025 the North and South American Classification Committees of the American Ornithological Society (AOS), the Clements taxonomy, and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) continue this classification, though HBW calls the species the common vermilion flycatcher.Chesser, R. T., S. M. Billerman, K. J. Burns, C. Cicero, J. L. Dunn, B. E. Hernández-Baños, R. A. Jiménez, O. Johnson, A. W. Kratter, N. A. Mason, P. C. Rasmussen, and J. V. Remsen, Jr. 2024. Check-list of North American Birds (online). American Ornithological Society. https://checklist.americanornithology.org/taxa/ retrieved August 22, 2024Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 March 2025. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved 30 March 2025HBW and BirdLife International (2024). Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 9. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/about-our-science/taxonomy retrieved December 23, 2024 However, a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2016 suggested that it be treated as a full species.{{cite journal | last1=Carmi | first1=O. | last2=Witt | first2=C.C. | last3=Jaramillo | first3=A. | last4=Dumbacher | first4=J.P. | year=2016 | title=Phylogeography of the Vermilion Flycatcher species complex: Multiple speciation events, shifts in migratory behavior, and an apparent extinction of a Galápagos-endemic bird species | journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume=102 | pages=152–173 | doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2016.05.029 | pmid=27233443 | doi-access=free | bibcode=2016MolPE.102..152C }} The IOC adopted the split in January 2017. As part of the split the IOC assigned the binomial Pyrocephalus obscurus to the now-reduced vermilion flycatcher.{{cite web |url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/bow/flycatchers/ |title=Tyrant flycatchers |website=IOC World Bird List |version =v 7.1 | editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David |date=January 2017 |access-date=April 16, 2025 }} A study published in 2020 offered further support and was later cited by the IOC.Harvey MG, GA Bravo, S Claramunt, AM Cuervo, GE Derryberry, J Battilana, GF Seeholzer, JS McKay, BC O’Meara, BC Faircloth, SV Edwards, J Pérez-Emán, RG Moyle, FH Sheldon, A Aleixo, BT Smith, RT Chesser, LF Silveira, J Cracraft, RT Brumfield, & EP Derryberry. 2020. The evolution of a tropical biodiversity hotspot. Science 370: 1343–1348.

The scarlet flycatcher Pyrocephalus rubinus as defined by the IOC is monotypic, and this article follows that treatment.

The scarlet flycatcher is about {{convert|14|cm|in|sigfig=2|abbr=on}} long.{{cite book | last =de la Peña | first =Martín R. | last2=Rumboll |first2=Maurice| title =Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica | publisher =Princeton University Press | series =Princeton Illustrated Checklists | date =2001 | location =New Jersey | pages =Plate 74, map 74.10 | isbn =0691090351 }} and weighs {{convert|12|to|15|g|oz|sigfig=2|abbr=on}}Ellison, K., B. O. Wolf, and S. L. Jones (2021). Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.verfly.01.1 retrieved April 16, 2025.Adult males have an intense poppy red forehead and crown down to the eye. Their lores and ear coverts are dark grayish brown and form a "mask". Their nape, upperparts, and tail are blackish and their rump blackish brown. Their wings are blackish with paler edges on the coverts and tertials. The lower part of their face, their throat, and their underparts are a slightly lighter shade of poppy red than the crown, with sometimes an orangey tinge. Adult females have a grayish brown head with grayish lores and an indistinct whitish supercilium. Their back and rump are the same grayish brown as the head and the uppertail coverts and tail are a duskier grayish brown. Their wings are mostly a darker grayish brown than the back. Their throat and underparts are dull white with grayish brown streaks throughout and sometimes a pale yellow tinge on the belly. Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a brownish black bill, and blackish to brownish black legs and feet.{{cite book | last =van Perlo | first = Ber| title =A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil | publisher =Oxford University Press | date =2009 | location =New York | pages =316–317 | isbn =978-0-19-530155-7 }}

The scarlet flycatcher is found over the course of the year from southeastern Colombia east across central Brazil and south from there through eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, eastern Bolivia, and southern Brazil into northern Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. (See the Movement section for details.) It inhabits semi-open to open landscapes such as open woodland, the edges of denser woodlands, pastures with scattered trees, and agricultural areas.

The scarlet flycatcher is highly migratory. It is a year-round resident from eastern Bolivia and far northern Argentina east across Paraguay and southern Brazil. It also breeds further south through Uruguay and Argentina to about Río Negro Province. In the austral winter it vacates the southern breeding range. From there and from within the year-round range it migrates north into most of Amazonian Brazil and Amazonian Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.

The scarlet flycatcher's diet and foraging behavior are not known in detail. It feeds mostly on insects caught in mid-air with sallies from a perch ("hawking") and also from the ground.

Nothing is known about the scarlet flycatcher's breeding biology. Almost all of the breeding data from the widespread vermilion flycatcher sensu lato are from Arizona.

{{birdsong|url=https://xeno-canto.org/species/Pyrocephalus-rubinus |species=the scarlet flycatcher}}

The scarlet flycatcher's song is an "extr. high tic-tic-psiieh" whose last part may be upslurred, and its call is an "extr. high psi".

The IUCN follows HBW taxonomy and so has not assessed the scarlet flycatcher separately from the vermilion flycatcher.{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International. |year=2021 |title=Common Vermilion Flycatcher Pyrocephalus rubinus |volume=2021 |page=e.T103682912A187307157 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-3.RLTS.T103682912A187307157.en |access-date=16 April 2025}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q572657}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:flycatcher, scarlet}}

scarlet flycatcher

scarlet flycatcher

scarlet flycatcher