Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus obscurus) 7 June 2019. Parque El Olivari, Lima, Peru
![]() Most flycatchers are drab and cryptic in coloration, but the Vermilion Flycatcher breaks all the rules. Clements recognizes 13 subspecies in six groups ranging from the United States to South America. The obscurus group consists of the 5 races on the west coast of South America. The birds in Peru include P. r. obscurus which is confined to NW Peru in the Lima area. It is unique in that a dark morph in which both sexes are all dark accounts for roughly half of the population. This is a light morph female. Canon PowerShot SX60 HS. References: Carmi, O., Witt, C.C., Jaramillo, A. & Dumbacher, J.P. (2016) Phylogeography of the Vermilion Flycatcher species complex: multiple speciation events, shifts in migratory behavior, and an apparent extinction of a Galápagos-endemic bird species. Mol. Phyl. & Evol. 102: 152-173. Ellison, K., B. O. Wolf, and S. L. Jones (2009). Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.484 Farnsworth, A., Lebbin, D. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Common Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/57383 on 27 June 2019). |