Cliff flycatcher

{{Speciesbox | name = Cliff flycatcher | image = Gibão de couro.jpg | image_caption = ''H. f. bellicosa'' in Pindamonhangaba, São Paulo, Brazil | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name=IUCN1>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=Cliff Flycatcher ''Hirundinea ferruginea'' |volume=2016 |article-number=e.T22699738A95076112 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22699738A95076112.en |access-date=27 March 2025}}</ref> | status2 = LC | status2_system = IUCN3.1 | status2_ref = <ref name=IUCN2>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2024 |title=Swallow Flycatcher ''Hirundinea bellicosa'' |volume=2024 |article-number=e.T22699743A264409333 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-2.RLTS.T22699743A264409333.en |access-date=27 March 2025}}</ref> | genus = Hirundinea | parent_authority = d'Orbigny & Lafresnaye, 1837 | species = ferruginea | authority = (Gmelin, JF, 1788) | synonyms = ''Hirundinea bellicosa'' (in part)(Vieillot, 1819) | range_map = Hirundinea ferruginea map 2.svg }} thumb|''H. f. sclateri'' on the cliifs above Loreto Road in Ecuador

The '''cliff flycatcher''' ('''''Hirundinea ferruginea''''') is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers.<ref name=IOC15.1>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/bow/flycatchers/ |title=Tyrant flycatchers |website=IOC World Bird List |version =v 15.1 | editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen |date=March 2025 |access-date=March 3, 2025 }}</ref> It is known in every mainland South American country except Chile and may occur there as well.<ref name=SACCcountries>Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2025. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved 31 January 2025</ref>

==Taxonomy and systematics==

The cliff flycatcher was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the todies in the genus ''Todus'' and coined the binomial name ''Todus ferrugineus''.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Gmelin | first=Johann Friedrich | author-link=Johann Friedrich Gmelin| year=1788 | title=Systema naturae per regna tria naturae: secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=13th | volume=1, Part 1 | language=Latin | location=Lipsiae [Leipzig] | publisher=Georg. Emanuel. Beer | page=446 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2897046 }}</ref><ref>{{ cite book | editor-last=Traylor | editor-first=Melvin A. Jr | author-link=Melvin Alvah Traylor Jr. | year=1979 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=8 | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=184 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14500961 }}</ref> Gmelin based his description on the "ferruginous bellied tody" from Cayenne that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. Latham had access to a specimen in the Leverian Museum in London.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Latham | first=John | author-link=John Latham (ornithologist) | year=1782 | title=A General Synopsis of Birds | volume=1, Part 1 | publisher=Printed for Leigh and Sotheby | location=London | pages=662–663 | url=http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33730507 }}</ref> The cliff flycatcher is the only species in the genus ''Hirundinea'' that was introduced in 1837 by the French naturalists Alcide d'Orbigny and Frédéric de Lafresnaye<ref>{{ cite journal | last1=d'Orbigny | first1=Alcide | author1-link=Alcide d'Orbigny | last2=Lafresnaye | first2=Frédéric de | author2-link=Frédéric de Lafresnaye | year=1837 | title=Synopsis avium | language=Latin | journal=Magasin de Zoologie | volume=7 | issue=2 | pages=1–88 [46] | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37087491 }}</ref> The genus name ''Hirundinea'' is Latin meaning "of swallows"; the specific epithet ''ferruginea'' is Latin meaning "rusty-colored" or "ferruginous".<ref>{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | pages=[https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n193/mode/1up 193], [https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n159/mode/1up 159]}}</ref>

The cliff flycatcher's further taxonomy is unsettled. The International Ornithological Congress, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC), and the Clements taxonomy assign it these four subspecies:<ref name=IOC15.1/><ref name=SACClist>Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, G. Del-Rio, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2025. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved 31 January 2025</ref><ref name=Clements2024>Clements, J. F., P.C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2024. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2024. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved October 23, 2024</ref>

* ''H. f. ferruginea'' (Gmelin, JF, 1788) * ''H. f. sclateri'' Reinhardt, 1870 * ''H. f. bellicosa'' (Vieillot, 1819) * ''H. f. pallidior'' Hartert, EJO & Goodson, 1917

However, since 2016 BirdLife International's ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) assigns only ''H. f. ferruginea'' and ''H. f. sclateri'' to the cliff flycatcher and separates ''H. f. bellicosa'' and ''H. f. pallidior'' as the "swallow flycatcher" (''H. bellicosa'').<ref name=HBW2015>BirdLife International (2015) The BirdLife checklist of the birds of the world: Version 8. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/BirdLife_Checklist_Version_80.zip [.xls zipped 1 MB].</ref><ref name=HBW2016>BirdLife International (2016) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 9. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/BirdLife_Checklist_Version_90.zip [.xls zipped 1 MB].</ref> The Clements taxonomy recognizes the "cliff" and "swallow" groups within the single species.<ref name=Clements2024/>

This article follows the one species, four subspecies, model.

==Description==

The cliff flycatcher is {{convert|15.5|to|18.5|cm|in|sigfig=2|abbr=on}} long and weighs {{convert|21|to|42|g|oz|sigfig=2|abbr=on}}. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies ''H. f. ferruginea'' have a brown crown and sides of the head, grayish forehead and ear coverts, a whitish supercilium, and a dark line through the eye. Their upperparts are brown. Their primary wing coverts are blackish brown with bright orange bases. Their secondary coverts and tertials are dark brown. Their primaries and secondaries are mostly orange with dark brown tips that extend up the outer webs of most of them. Their tail is brown to sooty black. Their chin is mottled with brownish to gray and their throat and underparts are rich cinnamon-rufous. Juveniles are similar to adults but paler and duller overall.<ref name=CLFL-BOW>Greeney, H. F., P. Pyle, and P. F. D. Boesman (2025). Cliff Flycatcher (''Hirundinea ferruginea''), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (N. C. García and B. K. Keeney, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.clifly1.02 retrieved March 27, 2025</ref><ref name=vanPerlo>{{cite book | last =van Perlo | first = Ber| title =A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil | publisher =Oxford University Press | date =2009 | location =New York | pages =312–313 | isbn =978-0-19-530155-7 }}</ref>

The other subspecies of the cliff flycatcher differ from the nominate and each other thus:<ref name=CLFL-BOW/>

* ''H. f. sclateri'': bright tawny to rufous inner web of most tail feathers; more gray mottling on the face and a paler chin than nominate<ref name=Hilty>{{cite book | last =Hilty | first =Steven L. | title =Birds of Venezuela | publisher =Princeton University Press | edition =second | date =2003 | location =Princeton NJ | page =616 | language =English }}</ref><ref name=Ridgely2>{{cite book | last =Ridgely | first =Robert S. | last2 =Greenfield | first2 =Paul J. | title =The Birds of Ecuador: Field Guide | publisher =Cornell University Press | volume = II| date =2001 | location =Ithaca | page =511 | isbn =978-0-8014-8721-7 }}</ref> * ''H. f. bellicosa'': minimal grayish on face, dusky mottling on cheeks and chin, mostly rufous-brown upperparts with orange-brown rump, uppertail coverts, and base of tail, and more rufous edging on wing feathers than nominate<ref name=vanPerlo/><ref name=Peña>{{cite book | last =de la Peña | first =Martín R. | last2=Rumboll |first2=Maurice| title =Birds of Southern South America and Antarctica | publisher =Princeton University Press | series =Princeton Illustrated Checklists | date =2001 | location =New Jersey | pages =Plate 78, map 78.3 | isbn =0-691-09035-1 }}</ref> * ''H. f. pallidior'': paler overall than nominate, with wider tawny-rufous edges on wing coverts

All subspecies have a brownish olive to yellowish olive iris, a black bill with a wide base, and slate to blackish legs and feet.<ref name=CLFL-BOW/>

==Distribution and habitat==

The cliff flycatcher has a highly disjunct distribution. The subspecies are found thus:<ref name=CLFL-BOW/>

* ''H. f. ferruginea'': from southeastern Colombia east across southern Venezuela and northwestern Brazil into Guyana; also eastern Suriname and French Guiana<ref name=Hilty/><ref name=McMullan>{{cite book | last1 =McMullan | first1 =Miles | last2 =Donegan | first2 =Thomas M. | last3 =Quevedo | first3 =Alonso | title = Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia | publisher = Fundación ProAves| date =2010 | location =Bogotá | page =159 |isbn =978-0-9827615-0-2 }}</ref> * ''H. f. sclateri'': Andes of western Venezuela, in the Serranía del Perijá on the Venezuela-Colombia border, in the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, and intermittently from Colombia's Central and Eastern Andes south on the eastern Andean slope through Ecuador into Peru as far as Cuzco Department<ref name=Hilty/><ref name=Ridgely2/><ref name=McMullan/><ref name=Schulenberg>{{cite book | last =Schulenberg | first =T.S. | last2 =Stotz | first2 =D.F. | last3 =Lane | first3 =D.F. | last4 =O'Neill | first4 =J.P. | last5 =Parker | first5 =T.A. III | title =Birds of Peru | publisher =Princeton University Press | edition =revised and updated |series=Princeton Field Guides | date =2010 | location =Princeton, NJ | page =460 |isbn = 978-0-691-13023-1 }}</ref> * ''H. f. bellicosa'': eastern and southern Brazil from southern Pará east to the Atlantic and south to eastern Bolivia, eastern Paraguay, Misiones Province in northeastern Argentina, and much of Uruguay<ref name=vanPerlo/><ref name=Peña/> * ''H. f. pallidior'': across central Bolivia into western Paraguay and south in western Argentina to Mendoza and San Luis provinces<ref name=Peña/>

In addition, the SACC has unconfirmed records in Chile that lead it to classify the species as hypothetical in that country.<ref name=SACCcountries/>

The cliff flycatcher inhabits vertical landscapes near or within forest including cliffs and gorges, canyons, rocky outcrops, quarries, and road cuttings. In the southern parts of its range it also utilizes human structures such as buildings and bridges, and in eastern Brazil is found in ''Eremanthus'' forest and ''campo rupestre''. In elevation it occurs from sea level to {{convert|2000|m|ft|abbr=on}} in Brazil. In Venezuela it ranges between {{convert|1000|and|2500|m|ft|abbr=on}} north of the Orinoco River and between {{convert|100|and|1900|m|ft|-2|abbr=on}} south of it. It reaches {{convert|1600|m|ft|abbr=on}} in Colombia, ranges between {{convert|900|and|1700|m|ft|abbr=on}} in Ecuador, and mostly ranges from {{convert|400|to|2200|m|ft|abbr=on}} but locally to {{convert|2700|m|ft|abbr=on}} in Peru. It reaches {{convert|3900|m|ft|abbr=on}} in Bolivia and {{convert|3500|m|ft|abbr=on}} in Argentina.<ref name=CLFL-BOW/><ref name=vanPerlo/><ref name=Hilty/><ref name=Ridgely2/><ref name=McMullan/><ref name=Schulenberg/>

==Behavior== ===Movement===

The cliff flycatcher is a year-round resident in most of its range but moves north from Argentina, Uruguay, and far southern Brazil in the austral winter. Some wandering, but not true migration, has been noted in northern populations.<ref name=CLFL-BOW/>

===Feeding===

The cliff flycatcher feeds on insects, though details are lacking. It typically forages in pairs or family groups. It perches horizontally on an exposed perch such as a cliff face, the end of a branch, and in urban areas a utility wire or building. It captures prey in mid-air with whooping and gliding swallow-like sallies from the perch ("hawking") and usually returns to the same perch.<ref name=CLFL-BOW/><ref name=Hilty/><ref name=Ridgely2/><ref name=Schulenberg/> It is "notably fearless of humans".<ref name=Hilty/> "Bill snapping when catching insects may be audible at quite some distance."<ref name=CLFL-BOW/>

===Breeding===

The cliff flycatcher's breeding season varies geographically but has not been fully defined. Most of the breeding data are from the two southern "swallow flycatcher" subspecies. All known nests are open cups made from soft plant material, moss, and twigs with feathers, hair, and dead leaves sometimes incorporated. The species nests on ledges and in crevices on natural cliffs and road cuts and on window ledges in urban areas. Two nests were between {{convert|10|and|12|m|ft|round=5|abbr=on}} up, one on a {{convert|14|m|ft|round=5|abbr=on}} high cliff and the other in a road cut. The clutch size is two or three eggs that are white with a yellowish or pinkish tinge and darker speckles. The incubation period and time to fledging are not known. Both parents defend the nest with distraction displays but other details of parental care are not known.<ref name=CLFL-BOW/><ref name=Hilty/><ref>{{cite book|author1=DK|author2=BirdLife International|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Birds|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYDOY6DszoIC&pg=PA343 |year=2011|publisher=Dorling Kindersley Limited|isbn=978-1-4053-3616-1 |page=343}}</ref>

{{birdsong|url=https://xeno-canto.org/species/Hirundinea-ferruginea |species=the cliff flycatcher}} ===Vocalization===

The "cliff" and "swallow" groups of the cliff flycatcher have different vocalizations. The northern and Andean "cliff" flycatchers sing "a two note ''ti-wee'' or ''ki-lee''". They also make "single ''pip'' calls". The southern "swallow" flycatchers sing a "loose series of short phrases uttered at a leisurely pace [like] a two note ''prrr-wheu''. The call of both populations is a "long overslurred whistle followed by a variable number of short trilled notes ''whee-trrrrr''", though that of the southern birds is lower pitched and faster. The species sings from a perch, usually near dawn and in late afternoon but intermittently during the day. The call is dominant during most of the day.<ref name=CLFL-BOW/>

==Status==

The IUCN follows HBW taxonomy and so has separately assessed the "cliff" and "swallow" flycatchers. Both are assessed as being of Least Concern. Both have very large ranges and unknown population sizes. The population of the "cliff" flycatcher is believed to be increasing and that of the "swallow" flycatcher stable. No immediate threats to either have been identified.<ref name=IUCN1/><ref name=IUCN2/> The cliff flycatcher is considered "local" in Venezuela and Ecuador, "very local" in Colombia, and "locally fairly common" in Peru.<ref name=Hilty/><ref name=Ridgely2/><ref name=McMullan/><ref name=Schulenberg/> It is considered fairly common in the southern part of its range and occurs in many protected areas throughout South America.<ref name=CLFL-BOW/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{Commons-inline|italic=1}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070922132755/http://chandra.as.utexas.edu/~kormendy/brazilss/CliffFlycatcher-2800ss.jpg Photo-Medium Res]; [https://web.archive.org/web/20071221050237/http://chandra.as.utexas.edu/~kormendy/brazilbirds.html Article] John Kormendy: Birds of Brazil - University of Texas Astronomy *[http://vireo.acnatsci.org/search.html?Form=Search&SEARCHBY=Common&KEYWORDS=cliff+flycatcher&showwhat=images&AGE=All&SEX=All&ACT=All&Search=Search&VIEW=All&ORIENTATION=All&RESULTS=24 Cliff flycatcher photo gallery] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180056/http://vireo.acnatsci.org/search.html?Form=Search&SEARCHBY=Common&KEYWORDS=cliff%20flycatcher&showwhat=images&AGE=All&SEX=All&ACT=All&Search=Search&VIEW=All&ORIENTATION=All&RESULTS=24 |date=2016-03-03 }} VIREO (Visual Resources for Ornithology)

cliff flycatcher Category:Birds of the Northern Andes Category:Birds of Colombia Category:Birds of the Tepuis Category:Birds of the Guiana Shield cliff flycatcher cliff flycatcher Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot

Cliff flycatcher

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