Green-backed becard
The green-backed becard is a species of bird in the family Tityridae, the tityras, becards, and allies. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The green-backed becard was originally described in 1816 as Tityra viridis. It was later reassigned to genus Pachyramphus that George Robert Gray 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.The green-backed becard's further taxonomy is unsettled. The IOC assigns it two subspecies, the nominate P. v. viridis
and P. v. griseigularis. The Clements taxonomy, AviList, and the independent South American Classification Committee add two more subspecies, P. v. xanthogenys and P. v. peruanus, that the IOC treat together as the separate species yellow-cheeked becard. Clements recognizes some distinctions among the subspecies by calling viridis the "green-backed becard ", griseigularis the "green-backed becard ", and the other two the "green-backed becard ". The SACC recognizes that xanthogenys and peruanus may represent a species and is seeking a proposal to evaluate their status. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World treats the green-backed becard as monotypic and the other systems' subspecies griseigularis as the separate species green-cheeked becard. It recognizes the same two-subspecies yellow-cheeked becard as the IOC.
This article follows the IOC two-subspecies model.
Description
The green-backed becard is about long; two individuals of the nominate subspecies weighed. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a glossy black crown, whitish lores, and a thin yellowish eye-ring. The lower part of their face and their nape are pale gray. Their upperparts are mostly bright olive with dusky olive flight feathers and tail. Their throat is whitish, their breast bright yellow to olive yellow, and the rest of their underparts grayish white with a buffy tinge. Adult females have a similar pattern to males. However, their crown is dull olive, their lores grayish, and their face grayer. Their upperparts are pale olive and their wing coverts rufous-chestnut. Their breast is a more muted yellow and their underparts overall somewhat more dusky than the male's. Males of subspecies P. v. griseigularis have a grayish olive face and nape. They have blackish flight feathers with olive edges. Their underparts are mostly grayish white with grayer sides and flanks than the nominate's. Females have a dusky brown crown, nape, and upperparts. Both sexes of both subspecies have a dark iris, a pale bluish horn bill, and dusky or grayish legs and feet.Distribution and habitat
The green-backed becard has a disjunct distribution. The nominate subspecies has by far the larger range. It is found in eastern and southern Brazil south from a line roughly southwest from Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte to west-central Mato Grosso. Its range continues from Mato Grosso slightly into eastern Bolivia. It continues south through most of Paraguay into northeastern Argentina as far as Santa Fe and Entre Ríos provinces and northern Uruguay, and loops north from Argentina into central Bolivia. Subspecies P. v. griseigularis is found in the eastern part of the eastern Venezuelan states of Delta Amacuro and Bolívar and slightly east into western Guyana and also in Brazil along the lower Amazon River from the lower Tapajós River to its mouth.The green-backed becard primarily inhabits humid to moist forest in the tropical and lower montane zones, and favors broken and somewhat open areas. It also is found in riparian forest, terra firme forest, and the ecotone between them. In Brazil it is found from sea level to. It also reaches that elevation in Venezuela.