Ornate Flycatcher

About the Ornate Flycatcher

The ornate flycatcher (Myiotriccus ornatus) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It is the only species in the genus Myiotriccus. The ornate flycatcher was originally described in 1853 as Tyrannula ornata. It was moved to its present genus Myiotriccus following its erection by Ridgway in 1905, and is the only species in that genus.

Beyond its reclassification the ornate flycatcher's taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Committee, the Clements taxonomy, and the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society treat it as a single species with these four subspecies:

M. o. ornatus (Lafresnaye, 1853) M. o. stellatus (Cabanis, 1873) M. o. phoenicurus (Sclater, PL, 1855) M. o. aureiventris (Sclater, PL, 1874) However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats M. o. ornatus and M. o. stellatus as the "western ornate flycatcher" and the other two as subspecies of the "eastern ornate flycatcher", M. phoenicurus. Clements groups the two pairs as "ornate flycatcher (western)" and "ornate flycatcher (eastern... Wikipedia →