''Piprites'' is a genus 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 ...

currently placed 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 ...

. Prior to 1971, the genus was placed in the family Pipridae; its designation was initially changed based on morphological evidence, and genetic evidence confirmed its placement in 2009. In 2013, it was proposed that ''Piprites'' was to be placed in the unique family Pipritinae. The proposition was declined by the Comité de Clasificación de Sudamérica, a part of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

, and the proposed family was changed to be a unique subfamily of the genus. The genus is composed of three species native to the

neotropical realm The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...

, with distributions ranging from the Caribbean coast of

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, and southeastern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Etymology

The generic name ''Piprites'' is derived from the Greek ''πιπρα'' (pipra), meaning "small bird" and originally associated with the

great spotted woodpecker The great spotted woodpecker (''Dendrocopos major'') is a medium-sized woodpecker with pied black and white plumage and a red patch on the lower belly. Males and young birds also have red markings on the neck or head. This species is found acros ...

and the various Neotropical manakins. The suffix ''ῑ́της'' (-ī́tēs) is also Greek and denotes "resembling" or "similar to", denoting the genus' similarity to the manakins.

Species

The genus ''Piprites'' contains 3 species:

References

External links

Piprites at Birds of the World
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1059797 Bird genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot