Ash-throated Flycatcher

About the Ash-throated Flycatcher

The ash-throated flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens) is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. First described in 1851 by George Newbold Lawrence from a specimen collected in western Texas in the United States, the ash-throated flycatcher was initially given the scientific name Tyrannula cinerascens. The species was mistakenly described again in 1851 as Tyrannula mexicanus — an error that was corrected in 1859 when Philip Lutley Sclater analyzed the tyrant flycatchers known from Mexico and realized that both scientific names referred to the same species. During the same analysis, Slater moved the ash-throated flycatcher from the genus Tyrannula to its current genus, Myiarchus. In the past, the ash-throated flycatcher has sometimes been considered to be conspecific with Nutting's flycatcher, but there are morphological and vocal differences between the two. There is disagreement as to whether the two species hybridize.

The ash-throated flycatcher has two recognized subspecies: M. c. cinerascens, the nominate subspecies described by Lawrence in 1851, breeds from the western US down into southern and central Mexico and winters from the southern US to Honduras... Wikipedia →