RED BIRDS SEEN IN NORTH AMERICA

Vermilion Flycatcher

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Pyrocephalus Obscurus

Males are mainly red and dark brown. They have bright red crown and underparts. The blackish mask includes lores, eyes, ear-coverts and nape. Back, wings and tail are blackish-brown.

Females have grayish-brown crown, ear- coverts and upperparts with wings and tail. The tail is darker. There is a whitish stripe including forehead and indistinct eyebrow.

Flight feathers and wing coverts are whitish edged. The whitish underparts are finely streaked with gray, on chest, sides and flanks. Belly and vent are pale red to salmon.

Both adults have the same kind of plumage all year round.

Juveniles have scaly grayish back, white underparts, white outer tail feathers, and dusky spotting across the chest.

Juvenile males resemble adult females, with more extensive reddish color under the tail and on flanks and variable amounts of dull red mottling.

Juvenile females are similar to adult females, but with yellow, not reddish, under the tail.

BILL: black and pointed.

SIZE: measures about 4.8 - 5.4 inches in length.

WEIGHT: weighs about 11.3 - 14.8 grams.

COLOR: red, dark-brown, black, blackish- brown, white, gray, and grayish-brown.

Insects such as flies, grasshoppers and beetles.

Stream sides shrubs, farmlands, desert, savannahs, cultivated areas and riparian woodlands, and usually near water.

Southern Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and widely in Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Galápagos Islands.

CALL: A sharp, long "peent."

SONG: A series of chips followed by a trill; often repeated about 10 times.

NEST: The female builds a shallow loose cup nest made of twigs, grasses, fibers and empty cocoons, and lined inside with down, feathers and hair.

EGGS: 2 - 4 white to cream or brown eggs.

INCUBATION: 13 - 15 days, female alone.

NESTLING PHASE: 14 - 16 days.

They forage by observing from a perch and flying out to capture insects when spotted, either catching them in mid-air or pouncing on them on the ground or in foliage.