The black-tailed myiobius or black-tailed flycatcher (''Myiobius atricaudus'') is a species of
passerine
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...
bird in the family
Onychorhynchidae
Onychorhynchidae is small family of suboscine passerine birds found in forest and woodland in the Neotropics.
Taxonomy and systematics
The family Onychorhynchidae was introduced (as the tribe Onychorhynchini) in 2009 by Jose Tello and collaborat ...
.
It was previously placed in 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 ...
or
Tityridae
Tityridae is family of suboscine passerine birds found in forest and woodland in the Neotropics. The 45 species in this family were formerly spread over the families Tyrannidae, Pipridae and Cotingidae (''see Taxonomy (biology), Taxonomy''). As y ...
.
Black-tailed flycatchers are found in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.
Their natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and heavily degraded former forest. They are usually found alone or in pairs, but may join flocks of several species.
Subspecies
Seven subspecies are recognised; ''M. a. atricaudus'' from south-western Costa Rica, Panama and western Colombia; ''M. a. portovelae'' from western Ecuador and north-western Peru; ''M. a. modestus'' from eastern Venezuela; ''M. a. adjacens'' from southern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru and western Brazil; ''M. a. connectens'' from north-eastern Brazil south of the River Amazon; ''M. a. snethlagei'' from north-eastern and eastern Brazil; ''M. a. ridgwayi'' from southeastern Brazil.
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Description
The black-tailed myiobius closely resembles the whiskered myiobius (''M. barbatus'') and the sulphur-rumped myiobius (''M. sulphureipygius'') in appearance, with olive upper parts and a yellow rump. The underparts differ in being buff rather than tawny or greyish-olive, but birds living in eastern Brazil tend to have yellowish or yellowish-buff underparts. Another distinguishing feature is the location in which the bird is seen. The black-tailed myobius haunts woodland edges and secondary forests and is less active or acrobatic than the other two species; it is found at altitudes up to .
Distribution and habitat
The species has a patchy distribution in tropical Central and South America. It is present in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru (on both sides of the Andes) and large parts of Brazil.[
]
Status
Destruction of the Amazon rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, spanning an area of 3,000,000 km2 (1,200,000 sq mi), is the world's largest rainforest. It encompasses the largest and most biodiverse tropical rainforest on the planet, representing over half of all rainforests. The ...
is reducing the area of suitable habitat for this bird and its numbers are thought to be in decline. It is an uncommon species with a patchy distribution, nevertheless, it has a very wide range and the total population size is likely to be large; as a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature
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 stat ...
has classified it as being of "least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
.
References
Further reading
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q1267191
black-tailed myiobius
Birds of Costa Rica
Birds of Panama
Birds of Colombia
Birds of Venezuela
Birds of Ecuador
Birds of the Amazon rainforest
Birds of Brazil
Birds of the Atlantic Forest
black-tailed myiobius
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot