Vorstman's Guideto the birds of Mexico and Central America

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Tyrant flycatchers and allies | Tyrannidae

Tirannen | Tiránidos

The largest bird family of the Americas and also the largest in this guide, with some hundred and ten species in about fifty genera, from desert scrub and savanna to rainforest and cloud forest, and in towns and gardens. They are suboscines, whose song is innate rather than learned. Most have a rather broad, flat bill with bristles at the gape and catch insects by sallying from a perch to snatch them in flight or pick them from a leaf; many also eat fruit, and the Great Kiskadee even takes small fish and frogs. Size ranges from the pygmy tyrants, among the smallest songbirds in the world, to the robust kingbirds, which fiercely drive much larger birds from their territories. Many species are olive and grey with wing bars and can be told apart only by voice and behaviour, but the male Vermilion Flycatcher is fiery red and the kiskadees are bright yellow with a black-and-white striped head. In winter many migrants from North America arrive, such as species of Empidonax and Contopus. Nests are highly varied: open cups, domed globes, long hanging pouches and cavities.

Native species 110 species

Species that occur here by nature: breeding birds, winter visitors and passage migrants. They are arranged by genus, in the sequence of the list.

Piprites 1 species

Platyrinchus 3 species

Pseudotriccus 1 species

Leptopogon 2 species

Mionectes 2 species

Phylloscartes 2 species

Rhynchocyclus 2 species

Tolmomyias 2 species

Cnipodectes 1 species

Todirostrum 2 species

Poecilotriccus 1 species

Myiornis 1 species

Atalotriccus 1 species

Lophotriccus 1 species

Oncostoma 2 species

Zimmerius 2 species

Ornithion 2 species

Camptostoma 2 species

Tyrannulus 1 species

Myiopagis 3 species

Elaenia 4 species

Capsiempis 1 species

Phyllomyias 1 species

Nesotriccus 2 species

Serpophaga 1 species

Ramphotrigon 1 species

Sirystes 1 species

Rhytipterna 1 species

Myiarchus 7 species

Legatus 1 species

Attila 1 species

Machetornis 1 species

Philohydor 1 species

Pitangus 1 species

Myiozetetes 3 species

Myiodynastes 3 species

Megarynchus 1 species

Conopias 1 species

Tyrannus 9 species

Myiophobus 1 species

Sublegatus 1 species

Colonia 1 species

Fluvicola 1 species

Pyrocephalus 1 species

Aphanotriccus 2 species

Xenotriccus 2 species

Sayornis 3 species

Empidonax 14 species

Mitrephanes 1 species

Contopus 7 species

Acrochordopus 1 species