The dusky-capped flycatcher (Myiarchus tuberculifer) is a passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in the United States, Mexico, every Central American country, Trinidad, and in every mainland South American country except Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
Taxonomy and systematics
The dusky-capped flycatcher was originally described in 1837 as Tyrannus tuberculifer. Its further taxonomic history is complex. At various times at least what are now seven separate species were included as subspecies of Myiarchus tuberculifer. It currently is assigned these 13 subspecies: The Clements taxonomy recognizes these four groups:
- Dusky-capped flycatcher (olivascens): M. t. olivascens
- Dusky-capped Flycatcher (lawrenceii group): M. t. lawrenceii, M. t. querulous, M. t. platyrhynchus, M. t. manens, M. t. connectens, M. t. littoralis, M. t. nigricapillus, and M. t. brunneiceps
- Dusky-capped flycatcher (tuberculifer/pallidus): M. t. tuberculifer and M. t. pallidus
- Dusky-capped flycatcher (nigriceps/atriceps): M. t. nigriceps and M. t. atriceps
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birds of the World treats each of M. t. olivascens, M. t. nigricapillus, M. t. nigriceps, and M. t. atriceps separately. It treats M. t. brunneiceps, M. t. tuberculifer, and M. t. pallidus as a group and the remaining six subspecies as another group.
Subspecies M. t. olivascens was for a time called the olivaceous flycatcher. In Costa Rica and western Panama it tends to favor somewhat open landscapes such as the edges and openings in forest, mature secondary forest, plantations, mangroves, and gardens. There it reaches about .
In the Amazon Basin from Colombia south to Bolivia and east to the Atlantic, subspecies M. t. tuberculifer primarily inhabits várzea and terra firme forest and the transitional forest between them. It also occurs in secondary forest, riparian forest, and plantations. In Brazil it ranges from sea level to . In Ecuador it mostly is found below , in Peru below , and in Venezuela below .
The primarily Andean subspecies M. t. atriceps inhabits the subtropical and temperate zones between . There it occurs in evergreen, semideciduous, and deciduous montane forest where it typically prefers the canopy and edges. and in Ecuador.