Black-capped tyrannulet

Black-capped tyrannulet
In Colombia
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Tyranniscus
Species:	T. nigrocapillus
Binomial name
Tyranniscus nigrocapillus (Lafresnaye, 1845)

The black-capped tyrannulet (Tyranniscus nigrocapillus) is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Taxonomy

The black-capped tyrannulet was formally described in 1845 by the French ornithologist Frédéric de Lafresnaye under the binomial name Tyrannulus nigrocapillus. He specified the type locality as "Bogotam", now Bogotá in Columbia. ^{[2] [3]} The specific epithet combines the Latin niger meaning "black" with -capillus meaning "-capped". ^[4] The species was formerly placed in the genus Phyllomyias but when a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2020 found that this genus was paraphyletic, the black-capped tyrannulet and two other tyrannulets were moved to the resurrected genus Tyranniscus that has been introduced in 1860 by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis and Ferdinand Heine. ^{[5] [6]}

Three subspecies are recognised: ^[5]

• T. n. flavimentum (Chapman, 1912) – Santa Marta Montains (northeast Colombia)
• T. n. nigrocapillus (Lafresnaye, 1845) – west Colombia and Ecuador to central Peru
• T. n. aureus (Zimmer, JT, 1941) – west Venezuela

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Phyllomyias nigrocapillus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22699113A93715652. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22699113A93715652.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. de Lafresnaye, Frédéric (1845). "Description de quelques oiseaux nouveaux". Revue Zoologique (in French). 8: 337–342 [341].
3. Traylor, Melvin A. Jr, ed. (1979). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 8. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 8.
4. Jobling, James A. "nigrocapillus". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
5. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2024). "Tyrant flycatchers". IOC World Bird List Version 14.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
6. Harvey, M.G.; et al. (2020). "The evolution of a tropical biodiversity hotspot". Science. 370 (6522): 1343–1348. doi:10.1126/science.aaz6970. A high resolution version of the phylogenetic tree in Figure 1 is available from the first author's website here.