Boat-billed Flycatcher (Megarynchus pitangua)

Identification & Behavior: ~23.5 cm (9.2 in). The Boat-billed Flycatcher has brown upperparts with wing coverts and flight feathers narrowly edged with grayish. It has a black crown with a semi-concealed yellow crown patch, a broad white superciliary, black mask through the eye, and white throat. It has a very thick black bill. The underparts are bright yellow. The tail is concolor with the back. It forages at the canopy and subcanopy of the forest, at forest edges and semi-open habitats. It is very similar to the Great Kiskadee but is distinguished by larger size and a very thick bill.

Status: The Boat-billed Flycatcher is fairly common and widespread in Amazonia where it is known to range up to 1200 m along the foothill of the Andes. It also occurs in the humid and semideciduous forest of extreme northwest Peru, in Tumbes. The Boat-billed Flycatcher also occurs in Co, Ec, Br, and Bo.

Name in Spanish: Mosquero Picudo.

Sub-species: Boat-billed Flycatcher (Megarynchus pitangua pitangua), (Linnaeus), 1766.  N, C & E Colombia (Caribbean lowlands, Magdalena Valley S to Huila, and throughout E of Andes), Venezuela, Trinidad, the Guianas, E Ecuador (except Zamora area), E Peru, Brazil (S to Rio Grande do Sul), N & E Bolivia, Paraguay and NE Argentina (S to E Formosa and Corrientes).
(Megarynchus pitangua chrysogaster), P. L. Sclater, 1860.  W Ecuador (S from W Esmeraldas) and extreme NW Peru (Tumbes, N Piura), possibly crossing Andes into S Ecuador.

Meaning of Name: Megarynchus: Gr. megas, megale= great and rhunkhos= bill. pitangua: Tupí name Pitanguá guacú for a large flycatcher, perhaps the Boat-billed Flycatcher.

See more of the Family Tyrannidae