Velvety Black-Tyrant

About the Velvety Black-Tyrant

The velvety black tyrant (Knipolegus nigerrimus) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is endemic to Brazil. The velvety black tyrant was formally described in 1818 as Muscicapa nigerrima, placing it in the Old World flycatcher family. It was later transferred to genus Knipolegus, which was erected in 1826 with the blue-billed black tyrant (K. cyanirostris) as the type species.

The velvety black tyrant's taxonomy is unsettled. The IOC and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World assign it two subspecies, the nominate M. n. nigerrimus (Vieillot, 1818) and M. n. hoflingae (Frederico Lencioni-Neto, 1996). The Clements taxonomy does not recognize hoflingae, treating the species as monotypic.

This article follows the two-subspecies model. The velvety black tyrant is 17.5 to 18 cm (6.9 to 7.1 in) long. Adult males of the nominate subspecies are almost entirely glossy blue-black and have a small bushy crest. Their primaries have white bases that are conspicuous in flight but usually not visible at rest. Adult females are also mostly glossy blue-black. They do not have a crest but have a... Wikipedia →