The Amazonian black-tyrant (''Knipolegus poecilocercus'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Tyrannidae The tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) comprise a Family (biology), family of passerine birds which is found virtually throughout North America, North and South America. It is the world's largest family of birds, with more than 400 species, and is ...

, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

.Remsen, 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. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved 30 March 2025

Taxonomy and systematics

The Amazonian black tyrant was

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

August von Pelzeln August von Pelzeln (10 May 1825, Prague – 2 September 1891 in Oberdöbling) was an Austrian ornithologist. He was a grandson to novelist Karoline Pichler (1769-1843).Knipolegus ''Knipolegus'' is a genus of birds, the black tyrants, in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. The genus was erected by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826 with the blue-billed black tyrant as the type species. The genus name combine ...

''.Hosner, P. A. and R. G. Moyle. 2012. A molecular phylogeny of black-tyrants (Tyrannidae: ''Knipolegus'') reveals strong geographic patterns and homoplasy in plumage and display behavior. Auk 129: 156–167.Remsen, 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 2025 The Amazonian black tyrant is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

. It is called "maria-preta-do-igapó" in

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...

, "Viudita-negra Amazónica" in Ecuadorian and Peruvian

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, and "Atrapamoscas Remoloncito" in Venezuelan Spanish.Farnsworth, A. and G. Langham (2020). Amazonian Black-Tyrant (''Knipolegus poecilocercus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ambtyr1.01 retrieved May 7, 2025

Description

The Amazonian black tyrant is about long and weighs about . It has unusually large eyes. Adult males are almost entirely glossy black with a slight bluish sheen. Their

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

have a brownish tinge. Adult females have a mostly olive-brown head and upperparts with grayish white lores and

eye-ring The eye-ring of a bird is a ring of tiny feathers that surrounds the orbital ring, a ring of bare skin immediately surrounding a bird's eye. The eye-ring is often decorative, and its colour may contrast with adjoining plumage. The ring of feather ...

and rufous uppertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

. Their wings are dusky with buff edges on the flight feathers and cinnamon-buff tips on the coverts that show as two

wing bar The following is a glossary of common English language terms used in the description of birds—warm-blooded vertebrates of the class Aves and the only living dinosaurs. Birds, who have and the ability to (except for the approximately 60 ext ...

s. Their tail is dusky with cinnamon edges on the feathers. Their underparts are mostly pale buff with brownish olive streaks on the lower throat, across the breast, and along the flanks. Both sexes have a dark brown iris and black legs and feet. Males have a bluish or bluish gray bill with a black tip; female's bills are dusky brown. It and the riverside tyrant (''H. orenocensis'') are very similar, but the riverside is larger and generally inhabits more open landscapes.

Distribution and habitat

The Amazonian black tyrant is found from eastern Colombia east into western Venezuela's

Apure Apure State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. Its territory formed part of the provinces of Mérida (state), Mérida, Maracaibo, and Barinas (state), Barinas, in accordance with successive territorial ordinations ...

state and south through its Amazonas state into northwestern Brazil and western Guyana. It also ranges along the

Ucayali River The Ucayali River (, ) is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón river, Marañón close to Nauta city. The city of ...

in northeastern Peru to the upper Amazon and in Brazil along the Amazonian tributary rivers

Negro In the English language, the term ''negro'' (or sometimes ''negress'' for a female) is a term historically used to refer to people of Black people, Black African heritage. The term ''negro'' means the color black in Spanish and Portuguese (from ...

, Branco,

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, lower Xingu, and

Tocantins Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 2014 ...

, and along the Amazon's main stem to its delta. There is an isolated population in extreme eastern Ecuador and sightings have been documented in Suriname. The Amazonian black tyrant inhabits '' várzea'' forest where it favors understory thickets and areas near open water with dense vines. In Ecuador and Peru it is known almost entirely at blackwater rivers and lakes. In elevation it ranges from sea level to in Brazil and up to in Colombia and in Venezuela and Ecuador.

Behavior

Movement

The Amazonian black tyrant is a year-round resident.

Feeding

The Amazonian black tyrant feeds on insects. It usually forages singly or in pairs, and females sometimes join

mixed-species feeding flock A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species that join each other and move together while foraging. These ar ...

s. It perches within about of the ground and usually in cover. It takes prey mostly with sallies to glean it from foliage; it also sometimes takes it on the ground or in mid-air close over water.

Breeding

The Amazonian black tyrant's breeding season has not been defined but includes February in Venezuela and July in Brazil. Males make a display in which they jump vertically from a perch, calls "''see-sa'lik''" in mid-air, and drop to the original perch. The species' one known nest was "an untidy ball of moss and grass" in a branch fork about above the ground by a small stream. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.

Vocal and non-vocal sounds

The Amazonian black tyrant is usually quiet. Displaying males make a "''see-sa'lik''" call and a "faint clicking ''ic-dik''" that might be from their wings. They also make a buzzy "''bzzééa''" and a "high ''tsik''". Females make a loud "''pit-pit''" call.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the Amazonian black tyrant as being of Least Concern. It has a large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified. Though its range overall encompasses it is not known how much of it the species actually occupies. The Amazonian black tyrant is considered "uncommon" in Colombia, "rare and local" in Ecuador, "locally common" in Venezuela, and "apparently very local" in Peru. It occurs in a few protected areas in Venezuela and Brazil.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q766047

Amazonian black tyrant The Amazonian black-tyrant (''Knipolegus poecilocercus'') is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela Venezuela, officially the B ...

Riverine birds of Amazonia Birds of the Venezuelan Amazon

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot