Boat-billed flycatcher

The boat-billed flycatcher (Megarynchus pitangua) is a large member of the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Mexico, in every Central American country, on Trinidad, and in every mainland South American country though only as a vagrant in Chile.

The boat-billed flycatcher is 21.5 to 24 cm (8.5 to 9.4 in) long and weighs 53 to 70 g (1.9 to 2.5 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies M. p. pitangua have a blackish brown or sooty crown with a mostly hidden yellow to orange-rufous patch in the center. They have a wide white supercilium that begins at the forehead and wraps almost all the way around the nape, a wide black band from the lores to the ear coverts, and white cheeks. They have olive to dull brownish olive upperparts. Their wings are dusky brownish, usually with thin pale cinnamon or rufous edges on the flight feathers. Their tail is dusky brownish with thin pale cinnamon or rufous outer feather edges. Their throat is white and their underparts bright yellow. Juveniles lack the crown patch, have a yellow tinge on the supercilium, and have darker and more brownish upperparts and wider cinnamon edges on the flight feathers than adults.

The other subspecies of the boat-billed flycatcher differ from the nominate and each other thus:

M. p. mexicanus: brighter, more greenish olive upperparts and no rufous on the tail feathers

M. p. caniceps: grayer crown and more grayish olive upperparts than mexicanus

M. p. tardiusculus: similar to mexicanus and caniceps

M. p. deserticola: similar to mexicanus and caniceps

M. p. chrysogaster: tawny-orange crown patch; more prominent rufous edges on upperwing coverts and flight feathers and richer yellow underparts

All subspecies have the species' characteristic long, wide, heavy, arched bill; it is blackish with sometimes a brownish base to the mandible. They have a brown iris and blackish legs and feet.

The boat-billed flycatcher is somewhat similar to the great kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus) and the social flycatcher (Myiozetetes similis) but is larger, has a much heavier bill, and has more olivaceous upperparts and browner wings and tail than they.