Spectacled tyrannulet explained

The spectacled tyrannulet (Zimmerius improbus), also known as specious tyrannulet or mountain tyrannulet, is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It occurs in Venezuela and Colombia.

The spectacled tyrannulet was described in 1871 by the English naturalists Philip Sclater and Osbert Salvin under the binomial name Tyranniscus improbus.^[1] It was formerly considered to be conspecific with the Guatemalan tyrannulet (Zimmerius vilissimus).^{[2] [3]}

There are two subspecies:^[3]

• Zimmerius improbus tamae (Phelps & Phelps Jr, 1954) – Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northeast Colombia
• Zimmerius improbus improbus (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1871) – Serranía del Perijá in northeast Colombia and northwest Venezuela

Notes and References

1. Sclater . P.L. . Philip Sclater . Salvin . O. . Philip Sclater . 1871 . Description of five new species of birds from the United States of Columbia . Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London . 840–844 [841] . The volume is dated 1870 but was not published until 1871.
2. Web site: Proposal (441): Split Zimmerius improbus from Z. vilissimus . South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society . 2010 . 13 January 2018 .
3. Web site: Gill . Frank . Frank Gill (ornithologist) . Donsker . David . 2017 . Tyrant flycatchers . World Bird List Version 7.3 . International Ornithologists' Union . 9 January 2018 .