The golden-browed chat-tyrant (Silvicultrix pulchella) is a species of passerine bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Bolivia and Peru.
Taxonomy and systematics
The golden-browed chat-tyrant has a complicated taxonomic history. It was formally described in 1876 as Ochthoeca pulchlla. For a time it and Jelski's chat-tyrant (now Silvicultrix jelskii) were considered conspecific and later both were 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 the golden-browed chat-tyrant to its original genus, though still as a 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 the golden-browed chat-tyrant to a full species. By 2006 the IOC had recognized the golden-browed 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 the golden-browed 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 the golden-browed chat-tyrant to genus Silvicultrix in 2016, Clements in 2022, and the SACC in 2023.
The golden-browed chat-tyrant has two subspecies, the nominate S. p. pulchella (Sclater, PL & Salvin, 1876) and S. p. similis (Carriker, 1933).
Description
The golden-browed chat-tyrant is 12 to 13 cm (4.7 to 5.1 in) long. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dark gray-brown crown and a golden-yellow forecrown that continues as a supercilium that extends far past the eye on an otherwise dark gray-brown face. Their back is dark brown that becomes more rufescent on the lower back and rump....
