Short-crested flycatcher
The short-crested flycatcher is a species of bird in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. It is found in every mainland South American country except Chile.
Taxonomy and systematics
The short-crested flycatcher was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the Old World flycatchers in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa ferox. The specific epithet ferox is from Latin and means "brave", "wild" or "fierce". Gmelin based his description primarily on "Le tyran de Cayenne" that had been described in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. Brisson had examined both male and female specimens that had been sent to France from Cayenne.The short-crested flycatcher is one of 22 flycatchers in the genus Myiarchus that was introduced in 1844 by Jean Cabanis. Within Myiarchus, the short-crested flycatcher is genetically closely related to the Panama flycatcher.
As of early 2025 the short-crested flycatcher is assigned these three subspecies:M. f. brunnescens Zimmer, JT & Phelps, WH, 1946M. f. ferox M. f. australis Hellmayr, 1927
The variation among and within the three subspecies is complicated and in need of further study to resolve. Wide hybrid zones occur where pairs of subspecies meet.
For much of the twentieth century what are now the Panama flycatcher and Venezuelan flycatcher were also included as subspecies.
Description
The short-crested flycatcher is about long and weighs. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies M. f. ferox have a smoky brown crown and upperparts; the crown has a slight crest. Their face is otherwise gray. Their wings are mostly dark brown with whitish yellow to grayish outer webs on the tertials. The wing's greater and median coverts have wide paler fuscous brown tips that show as two wing bars. Their tail is dark smoky brown with rufous edges on the feathers that quickly wear away. Their throat and breast are gray that is slightly lighter on the throat. Their belly and undertail coverts are yellow. Subspecies M. f. brunnescens has lighter brown upperparts than the nominate with wider rufous edges on the tail feathers and an olive-green wash on the flanks. M. f. australis is similar to brunnescens but with a less brown crissum. All subspecies have a dark iris, a dark bill, and dark legs and feet. Juveniles have rufous tips on the wing coverts and rufous edges on the tertials and outermost pair of tail feathers.Distribution and habitat
The nominate subspecies of the short-crested flycatcher has the largest range. It is found in the Amazon Basin from southern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador and eastern Peru into northern Bolivia and east through southern and eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and Brazil north of the approximate line southern Mato Grosso – southern Goiás – southern Minas Gerais – central Espírito Santo. Subspecies M. f. australis is found from southeastern Bolivia east across Brazil below the above line and south through Paraguay and Brazil almost to Rio Grande do Sul and into northern Argentina's Misiones and Corrientes provinces and slightly into northern Uruguay. M. f. brunnescens has a limited range in the Llanos of extreme northeastern Colombia into Venezuela from Táchira and Portuguesa east to northwestern Bolívar.The short-crested flycatcher inhabits a variety of landscapes, most of which are somewhat open. These include clearings and edges of dense forest, várzea and igapó forest, cerrado, riparian corridors, and agricultural areas. In elevation it ranges up to in Colombia, in Ecuador, in Peru, and in Venezuela north of the Orinoco River and south of it.