The pewees are a genus, Contopus, of small to medium-sized insect-eating birds in the Tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae.
Pewees | |
---|---|
Western wood pewee (Contopus sordidulus) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Tyrannidae |
Genus: | Contopus Cabanis, 1855 |
Type species | |
Muscicapa virens Linnaeus, 1766
| |
Species | |
See text. |
These birds are known as pewees, from the call of one of the more common members of this vocal group. They are generally charcoal-grey birds with wing bars that live in wooded areas.
The genus Contopus was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1855 with the eastern wood pewee as the type species.[1] The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek words kontos "pole" or "shaft" and pous "foot".[2]
The genus contains 16 species:[3]
Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
---|---|---|---|
Contopus cooperi | Olive-sided flycatcher | Canada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States | |
Contopus pertinax | Greater pewee | central and southern Mexico south through Costa Rica and Nicaragua | |
Contopus lugubris | Dark pewee | Talamancan montane forests of Costa Rica and western Panama. | |
Contopus fumigatus | Smoke-colored pewee | Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela | |
Contopus ochraceus | Ochraceous pewee | Costa Rica and western Panama | |
Contopus sordidulus | Western wood pewee | western North America | |
Contopus virens | Eastern wood pewee | Central America and in the Andes region of northern South America. | |
Contopus cinereus | Southern tropical pewee | southern Brazil and Paraguay south to Argentina. | |
Contopus bogotensis | Northern tropical pewee | southeastern Mexico to northern South America from northern Colombia to northeastern Brazil. | |
Contopus punensis | Tumbes pewee | western Ecuador and western Peru. | |
Contopus albogularis | White-throated pewee | Brazil, French Guiana, and Suriname. | |
Contopus nigrescens | Blackish pewee | Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru. | |
Contopus caribaeus | Cuban pewee | Cuba and the northern Bahamas. | |
Contopus hispaniolensis | Hispaniolan pewee | island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. | |
Contopus pallidus | Jamaican pewee | Jamaica | |
Contopus latirostris | Lesser Antillean pewee | Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico, and Saint Lucia |
References
edit- ^ Cabanis, Jean (1855). "Contopus virens Cab". Journal für Ornithologie (in German). 3 (18): 479.
- ^ Jobling, J.A. (2018). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
- ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Tyrant flycatchers". World Bird List Version 8.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 1 July 2018.