Pogonotriccus Explained

Pogonotriccus is a genus of small passerine birds in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae. They are found in wooded habitats of Central and South America.

Taxonomy

The genus was erected by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis and Ferdinand Heine in 1859 with the southern bristle tyrant (Pogonotriccus eximius) as the type species.^[1] The genus has sometimes been merged into the genus Phylloscartes.^{[2] [3]} In 2004 John Fitzpatrick in the Handbook of the Birds of the World chose to treat Pogonotriccus as a separate genus based on the slight differences in behaviour of the birds in the two genera.^[4] Frank Gill and David Donsker then also recognised Pogonotriccus in the list of bird species that they maintain on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee. The evidence for splitting the genus is weak: a 2009 molecular phylogenetic study that included one species from Pogonotriccus and three from Phylloscartes, found that the genetic differences were small.^[5]

Species

The genus contains nine species:^[6]

Image	Common Name	Scientific name	Distribution
		Pogonotriccus poecilotis	Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
		Pogonotriccus chapmani	Venezuela.
		Pogonotriccus ophthalmicus	Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
		Pogonotriccus orbitalis	Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
		Pogonotriccus venezuelanus	Venezuela.
		Pogonotriccus lanyoni	Colombia.
		Pogonotriccus eximius	Brazil, Paraguay and northeastern Argentina.

Notes and References

1. Book: Cabanis . Jean . Jean Cabanis . Heine . Ferdinand . Ferdinand Heine . 1859–1860 . Museum Heineanum . German . 2. R. Frantz . Halberstadt . 54 . .
2. Traylor . Melvin A. Jr . Melvin Alvah Traylor Jr. . 1977 . A classification of the tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) . Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College . 148 . 4 . 129–184 .
3. Book: Traylor . Melvin A. Jr . Melvin Alvah Traylor Jr. . 1979 . Check-list of Birds of the World . 8 . Museum of Comparative Zoology . Cambridge, Massachusetts . 63 .
4. Book: Fitzpatrick, J.W. . John W. Fitzpatrick . 2004 . Family Tyrannidae (Tyrant-Flycatchers) . del Hoyo . J. . Elliott . A. . Christie . D.A. . Handbook of the Birds of the World . 9 : Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails . Lynx Edicions . Barcelona . 978-84-87334-69-6 . 170–462 . https://archive.org/details/handbookofbirdso0001unse/page/170 .
5. Tello . J.G. . Moyle . R.G. . Marchese . D.J. . Cracraft . J. . 2009 . Phylogeny and phylogenetic classification of the tyrant flycatchers, cotingas, manakins, and their allies (Aves: Tyrannides) . Cladistics . 25 . 5. 429–467 . 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2009.00254.x . 34879622 . 85422768 . free .
6. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . Rasmussen . Pamela . Pamela C. Rasmussen . December 2023 . Tyrant flycatchers . IOC World Bird List Version 14.1 . International Ornithologists' Union . 12 January 2024 .