Jelski's chat-tyrant (Silvicultrix jelskii) is a species of passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Ecuador and Peru.
Taxonomy and systematics
Jelski's chat-tyrant has a complicated taxonomic history. It was formally described in 1883 as Ochthoeca jelskii. What is now Kalinowski's chat-tyrant (Silvicultrix spondionata) was described in 1896 as a subspecies of Jelski's. Both taxa were later treated as subspecies of the crowned chat-tyrant (then Tyrannula frontalis). In 1966 Meyer de Schauensee placed the crowned chat-tyrant in genus Ochthoeca, returning Jelski's and Kalinowski's chat-tyrants to their original genus, though still as subspecies of the crowned chat-tyrant. Wesley Lanyon moved the crowned chat-tyrant to Silvicultrix when he erected that genus in 1986.
By 1990 some authors had elevated Kalinowski's and Jelski's chat-tyrants to full species. By 2006 the IOC had recognized Jelski's chat-tyrant as a species and then adopted the change in genus to Silvicultrix in 2009. The first version of BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW), published in 2007, included Jelski's chat-tyrant as a full species. The Clements taxonomy and the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC) later accepted it as a species. HBW adopted the reassignment of Jelski's chat-tyrant to genus Silvicultrix in 2016, Clements in 2022, and the SACC in 2023.
Jelski's chat-tyrant is monotypic.
Description
Jelski's chat-tyrant is 12 to 12.5 cm (4.7 to 4.9 in) long. Adult males have a blackish brown crown and a yellow forecrown that continues and becomes white as a supercilium that extends far past the eye on an otherwise blackish brown face. Their upperparts are rufous-brown, especially on the rump. Their wings are dusky with rufous tips on the coverts that show as two bold wing bars. Their tail is dusky or brownish. Their throat and breast are gray, their belly rufous-tinged gray, and their...
