Barred becard
The barred becard is a small passerine bird
in the family Tityridae, the tityras, becards, and allies. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, and in South America from Venezuela to Bolivia.
Taxonomy and systematics
The barred becard was originally described in 1843 as Vireo versicolor. It was later reassigned to genus Pachyramphus that George Robert Gray had erected in 1840. The genus has variously been assigned to the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae and the cotinga family Cotingidae. Several early twenty-first century studies confirmed the placement of Pachyramphus in Tityridae and taxonomic systems made the reassignment. In 1998 the American Ornithological Society was unsure where to place the genus and listed its members as incertae sedis but in 2011 moved them to Tityridae.The barred becard has three subspecies, the nominate P. v. versicolor, P. v. costaricensis, and P. v. meridionalis.
Description
The barred becard is long and weighs. It is the smallest member of genus Pachyramphus. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a glossy black crown and nape and greenish yellow lores and eye-ring. Their face is also greenish yellow. Their upperparts are mostly glossy black with a slate gray rump and uppertail coverts. Their wings are black with white edges on the greater coverts and remiges. Their scapulars and lesser and median coverts are white with black edges. Their tail is slate gray with white edges on the feathers. Their throat is greenish yellow that becomes white on the rest of the underparts; these colors are overlain with thin blackish bars. Adult females have a slate gray crown and nape and a yellow eye-ring; their face is a slightly more olive yellow than the male's. Their upperparts are olive green. Their wing coverts are rufous; their flight feathers are a darker rufous with buff edges on the tertials. Their tail is brownish gray. Their breast is more olive than the male's and becomes darker on the rest of the underparts. They have dusky bars that are fainter than the male's. The other two subspecies are essentially identical to the nominate. Both sexes of all subspecies have a black iris, a black maxilla, a bluish gray mandible, and gray legs and feet.Distribution and habitat
The barred becard has a disjunct distribution. Subspecies P. v. costaricensis is the northernmost and has the smallest range of the three. It is found intermittently from the Tilarán Cordillera in Costa Rica's southern Alajuela Province south into western Panama's Chiriquí Province. The nominate subspecies is found in the Serranía del Perijá on the Colombia/Venezuela border and on the eastern slope of the Venezuelan Andes from Lara into Colombia. In Colombia it is found along both slopes of the Eastern Andes, from Norte de Santander Department south in the Central Andes, and south from Valle del Cauca Department in the Western Andes. From Colombia its distribution continues into the Andes of Ecuador, on the western slope to Chimborazo Province and on the eastern slope to Zamora-Chinchipe Province. P. v. meridionalis is found in Peru on the western Andean slope from Ecuador south to Cajamarca Department and on the eastern slope from southern Amazonas Department south to northern Puno Department. It also occurs at scattered locations in northwestern Bolivia.The barred becard inhabits a variety of landscapes in the subtropical and lower temperate zones. These include cloudforest, elfin forest, and humid montane woodlands. It is found both in somewhat open forest and in scrubby ravines. In elevation it ranges between in Costa Rica, between in Venezuela, between in Colombia, mostly between in Ecuador, and mostly between though locally as low as in Peru.