Vermilion Flycatcher Pyrocephalus rubinus

Brazilian name: príncipe

Chilean name: saca-tu-real
Male Vermilion Flycatcher, Emas, Goiás, Brazil, April 2001 - click for larger image Brazil and Chile

The male Vermilion Flycatcher is a stunning bird with its head and underparts a brilliant scarlet apart from a thick dark line through the eye.

Male Vermilion Flycatcher, Roraima, Brazil, July 2001 - click for larger image The first photo is either of a young male coming into breeding plumage for the first time or an eclipse male which has lost some of its scarlet colouring during the non-breeding season.

The female, seen in photo 6, has very different colouring being dusky brown with a streaked greyish breast and normally some pink on the belly.
Male Vermilion Flycatcher, Roraima, Brazil, July 2001 - click for larger image They are found in open areas with some trees or bushes and can be found in parks and gardens. They range from south west USA to central Argentina but are not found in Amazonia or eastern Brazil except when on migration during the southern winter.
Male Vermilion Flycatcher, Barra de Quaraí, Brazil, August 2004 - click for larger image

Photos 5 and 6 were taken in northern Chile and are of the sub-species P. r. cocachacrae where the male has a slightly less dark back and less bright red underparts.

There are illustrations in Ridgely & Tudor, Volume 2, Plate 38; in Hilty & Brown, Plate 37 and Sick, Plate 33.

There are recordings and a distribution map on xeno-canto.

Male Vermilion Flycatcher, Azapa Valley, Chile, February 2007 - click for larger image
Female Vermilion Flycatcher, Azapa Valley, Chile, February 2007 - click for larger image
Previous Page Back to Index Next Page
If you do not see a menu on the left, you may have arrived at this page from another site. Please click Home to get to my main page.