Plain-capped Ground-Tyrant

About the Plain-capped Ground-Tyrant

The paramo ground tyrant (Muscisaxicola alpinus), more widely known as the plain-capped ground-tyrant, is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and possibly Peru.

The paramo ground tyrant was originally described in 1849 as Taenioptera alpina. It was eventually moved to genus Muscisaxicola that had been erected in 1837. Until the 2020 publication of a molecular phylogenetic study it had been widely treated as conspecific with the cinereous ground tyrant (M. cinereus) and Taczanowski's ground tyrant (M. griseus). Of the major taxonomic systems, only the IOC calls it the "paramo ground tyrant"; Wikipedia generally follows IOC nomenclature. The South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC), the Clements taxonomy, and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World call it the "plain-capped ground-tyrant".

The paramo ground tyrant has three subspecies, the nominate M. a. alpinus (Jardine, 1849), M. a. columbianus (Chapman, 1912), and M. a. quesadae (Meyer de Schauensee, 1942). The paramo ground tyrant is 18 to 20 cm (7.1 to... Wikipedia →