Cliff Flycatcher
Hirundinea ferruginea
This unmistakable long-winged flycatcher is widespread (though rarely very numerous) throughout much of South America. As the name implies it occurs around cliffs, landslides, and even buildings. Medium size, warm rufous coloration (brightest on the wings), and habitat are distinctive. Some variation across range, with birds in the Andes having more whitish speckling on the face. Compare with Streak-throated Bush-Tyrant, which is larger and has a streaked throat. Usually seen singly or in pairs, perched conspicuously on a snag, rock face, powerline, or building.
Identification
The adult cliff flycatcher is about 18.5 cm (7.3 in) long. It has a wide beak and long pointed wings, resembling those of a swallow. The upper parts are dusky brown, with a distinctive rufous rump and base of tail. The tips of the wing feathers are dark, but the remaining parts are cinnamon-rufous and these are exposed in flight. The underparts are pale cinnamon-rufous, with some grey speckling on the throat.
Taxonomy
The cliff flycatcher was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the todies in the genus Todus and coined the binomial name Todus ferrugineus. Gmelin based his description on the "ferruginous bellied tody" from Cayenne that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book A General Synopsis of Birds. Latham had access to a specimen in the Leverian Museum in London. The cliff flycatcher is now the only species placed in the genus Hirundinea that was introduced in 1837 by the French naturalists Alcide d'Orbigny and Frédéric de Lafresnaye to accommodate Tyrannus bellicosus Vieillot, which is now considered a subspecies of the cliff flycatcher. The genus name Hirundinea is Latin meaning "of swallows": the specific epithet ferruginea is Latin meaning "rusty-coloured" or "ferruginous".<p>Four subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Hirundinea ferruginea
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1788)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Tyrannidae
- Genus
- Hirundinea
Range and habitat
The cliff flycatcher is only found east of the Andes cordillera, and therefore is not found in Chile. All other countries in South America are represented in its range. In the Amazon basin, it surrounds the basin in the foothills, and highest elevations at tributaries' headwaters; it ranges down to central Argentina west of the Pampas, and east of the Pampas to southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay; also southeast of the Amazon Basin in the Brazilian Highlands, to the Atlantic and south Atlantic coast of Brazil, about an 8,000 km (5,000 mi) stretch of coastline. Its natural habitat is in the vicinity of cliffs and gorges, canyons, rocky outcrops, quarries and road cuttings. It is also found, particularly in the south of its range, around buildings in cities, where the windowsills and facades provide a form of artificial cliff. Southerly populations are migratory while more northerly ones are sedentary.
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Behavior
The cliff flycatcher perches in a prominent position, sallying to hawk for insects in spectacular aerial flying displays. It nests on cliff ledges, stabilising the nest by arranging pebbles in a ring to support the structure. In the city environment of São Paulo, it breeds on the windowsills of high rise blocks.
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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