Vermilion Flycatcher

About the Vermilion Flycatcher

The scarlet flycatcher or austral vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) is a passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

The scarlet flycatcher was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1779 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Muscicapa rubinus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The type locality was restricted to Tefé on the Amazon River by the American ornithologist John T. Zimmer in 1941. The scarlet flycatcher is now placed in the genus Pyrocephalus that was introduced in 1839 by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould. The generic name combines the Ancient Greek purrhos meaning "flame-colored... Wikipedia →