silky flycatcher

any of several passerine birds of the family Ptilogonatidae, of the southwestern U.S. to Panama, related to the waxwings.

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▪ bird

      any of four arboreal bird species found in dry, brushy regions from Nevada south to Panama that have silky feathers, prominent crests, and broad bills. They are about 19 cm (7.5 inches) long. Their basic diet consists of mistletoe berries, supplemented with insects (insect) taken by darting from a perch like a true flycatcher. Silky flycatchers are unrelated to the tyrant flycatchers (family Tyrannidae) and are more closely related to the waxwings (waxwing) (family Bombycillidae).

      In the best known of the group, the phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens), the male is black and the female gray; both parents incubate the dark-spotted pale gray eggs and help care for the young. Ptilogonys species are gray with yellow sides, and the black-and-yellow silky flycatcher (Phainoptila melanoxantha) is similar, but the male has purplish black upper parts and the female a dark green back.

Sy Montgomery

 

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