Vorstman's Guideto the birds of the Andes and West Coast

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Tyrant flycatchers and allies | Tyrannidae

Tirannen | Tiránidos | Tyrant flycatchers and allies

The largest bird family of the Americas and also the largest in this guide, with three hundred and one species in ninety-six genera, from the coastal desert and dry forest along the Pacific to the Amazon rainforest, cloud forest and the páramo and puna high in the Andes, and in towns and gardens. They are suboscines, whose song is innate rather than learned. Most have a rather broad, flat bill with bristles at the gape and catch insects by sallying from a perch to snatch them in flight or pick them from a leaf; many also eat fruit, and the Great Kiskadee even takes small fish and frogs. Size ranges from the pygmy tyrants, among the smallest songbirds in the world, to the robust kingbirds, which fiercely drive much larger birds from their territories. High in the Andes live the ground tyrants, which run over bare ground like wheatears, and on the Galápagos the Galapagos Flycatcher. Many species are olive and grey with wing bars and can be told apart only by voice and behaviour, but the male Vermilion Flycatcher is fiery red and the kiskadees are bright yellow with a black-and-white striped head. In the northern winter migrants from North America arrive, such as species of Empidonax and Contopus, and in the southern winter migrants from the south of the continent. Nests are highly varied: open cups, domed globes, long hanging pouches and cavities.

Native species 297 species

Species that occur here by nature: breeding birds, winter visitors and passage migrants. They are arranged by genus, in the sequence of the list.

Legatus 1 species

Zimmerius 7 species

Fluvicola 2 species

Mitrephanes 2 species

Satrapa 1 species

Contopus 7 species

Nephelomyias 3 species

Machetornis 1 species

Alectrurus 1 species

Acrochordopus 1 species

Ochthoeca 8 species

Hymenops 1 species

Phylloscartes 4 species

Corythopis 2 species

Sirystes 2 species

Hemitriccus 13 species

Pseudelaenia 1 species

Myiodynastes 5 species

Xolmis 2 species

Tyrannulus 1 species

Syrtidicola 1 species

Leptopogon 4 species

Myiophobus 6 species

Poecilotriccus 8 species

Gubernetes 1 species

Pitangus 1 species

Myiotriccus 1 species

Piprites 1 species

Mecocerculus 6 species

Tyrannopsis 1 species

Lophotriccus 4 species

Culicivora 1 species

Arundinicola 1 species

Tachuris 1 species

Colonia 1 species

Capsiempis 1 species

Attila 5 species

Knipolegus 8 species

Mionectes 4 species

Suiriri 1 species

Camptostoma 1 species

Philohydor 1 species

Megarynchus 1 species

Oncostoma 1 species

Neopipo 1 species

Serpophaga 5 species

Ornithion 2 species

Anairetes 5 species

Tolmomyias 5 species

Myiozetetes 4 species

Pyrocephalus 1 species

Silvicultrix 4 species

Neoxolmis 1 species

Pseudotriccus 3 species

Hirundinea 1 species

Myiotheretes 4 species

Sayornis 1 species

Uromyias 2 species

Pseudocolopteryx 3 species

Cnipodectes 2 species

Rhytipterna 3 species

Todirostrum 4 species

Empidonax 3 species

Stigmatura 2 species

Myiarchus 12 species

Pyrrhomyias 1 species

Lathrotriccus 2 species

Phyllomyias 5 species

Muscisaxicola 12 species

Platyrinchus 5 species

Polystictus 1 species

Nesotriccus 1 species

Myiopagis 6 species

Elaenia 15 species

Empidonomus 2 species

Aphanotriccus 1 species

Tyranniscus 3 species

Pogonotriccus 4 species

Inezia 4 species

Lessonia 2 species

Conopias 3 species

Sublegatus 3 species

Ramphotrigon 3 species

Muscigralla 1 species

Phelpsia 1 species

Myiornis 3 species

Euscarthmus 3 species

Tyrannus 7 species

Casiornis 1 species

Agriornis 4 species

Cnemotriccus 1 species

Rhynchocyclus 4 species

Ochthornis 1 species

Atalotriccus 1 species

Nengetus 1 species

Cnemarchus 2 species

Vagrants 4 species

Birds blown in from other continents. They have no range here, and so no distribution map.