Many-colored Rush Tyrant

About the Many-colored Rush Tyrant

The many-colored rush tyrant or many-coloured rush tyrant (Tachuris rubrigastra) is a small passerine bird of South America belonging to the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

A 2013 DNA-based study of South American suboscines found that the many-colored rush tyrant belonged to an isolated lineage that had been separated from other suboscines for around 25 million years. The authors proposed that it should be placed in its own monotypic family Tachurididae. It was subsequently suggested that the name should be Tachurisidae. Edward Dickinson and Leslie Christidis placed it in Tachurisidae in the fourth edition of the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. As of late 2024 the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society classifies it as incertae sedis and is seeking a proposal to clarify its status. Other taxonomic systems retain it in Tyrannidae.

The many-colored rush tyrant is the only member of its genus and has these four subspecies: T. r. alticola (Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1896) T. r. libertatis (Hellmayr, 1920... Wikipedia →