The boat-billed flycatcher (Megarynchus pitangua) is a large member of the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Mexico, in every Central American country, on Trinidad, and in every mainland South American country though only as a vagrant in Chile.

Taxonomy and systematics

The boat-billed flycatcher was originally described as Lanius pitangua, mistakenly placing it in the shrike family. It was eventually moved to its present genus Megarynchus that was erected in 1824. The specific epithet derives from the Tupi language name for the bird, "Pitanguá guacú".

The boat-billed flycatcher is the only member of its genus and has these six subspecies: The Clements taxonomy recognizes some distinctions within the species by calling M. p. pitangua the "boat-billed flycatcher (South American)", M. p. chrysogaster the "boat-billed flycatcher (Tumbes)", and the other four subspecies the "boat-billed flycatcher (northern)".

left|thumb| [[Yasuni National Park, Ecuador]]

Description

The boat-billed flycatcher is long and weighs . The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies M. p. pitangua have a blackish brown or sooty crown with a mostly hidden yellow to orange-rufous patch in the center. They have a wide white supercilium that begins at the forehead and wraps almost all the way around the nape, a wide black band from the lores to the ear coverts, and white cheeks. They have olive to dull brownish olive upperparts. Their wings are dusky brownish, usually with thin pale cinnamon or rufous edges on the flight feathers. Their tail is dusky brownish with thin pale cinnamon or rufous outer feather edges. Their throat is white and their underparts bright yellow. Juveniles lack the crown patch, have a yellow tinge on the supercilium, and have darker and more brownish upperparts and wider cinnamon edges on the flight feathers than adults.

  • M. p. caniceps: southwestern Jalisco in western Mexico
  • M. p. deserticola: valley of the Negro River in central Guatemala
  • M. p. chrysogaster: disjunctly west of the Andes from western Esmeraldas Province in northwestern Ecuador south into far northern Peru's Tumbes and northern Piura departments In Colombia it includes July to October, in southern Brazil November, and Argentina October to December. Its nest is a shallow cup made from twigs, grass, leaves, and other plant materials, and usually is placed in a branch fork between about above the ground. The clutch is two to three eggs. The incubation period is 17 to 18 days and fledging occurs about 24 days after hatch. Details of parental care are not known.