becard

/bek"euhrd, beuh kahrd"/, n.

any of several passerine birds of the genus Pachyramphus, of the American tropics, having large heads and swollen bills, and variously classified with the flycatchers or the cotingas.

[ < F bécard, beccard a merganser with a prominent beak, equiv. to bec BEAK + -ard -ARD]

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▪ bird

 any of many tropical American birds belonging to the family Cotingidae (order Passeriformes) that usually builds its large ball nest on an exposed branch near a colony of stinging wasps. The 15 species of becards (comprising the genera Platypsaris and Pachyramphus) are rather plain, small birds with thick bills hooked at the tip. They pluck fruit and capture insects (particularly caterpillars) in the treetops, often by hovering. The 16-centimetre (6 ¹/₂-inch) rose-throated becard, (Platypsaris aglaiae), occurring from Costa Rica to the U.S.–Mexican border, is the farthest north representative of the group and of the family Cotingidae. The becards are considered by some authorities to belong with the tyrant flycatchers in the family Tyrannidae.

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