Cattle Tyrant

Overview

The cattle tyrant is a highly terrestrial bird in the tyrant flycatcher family that resembles Tyrannus flycatchers. It is the only member of the genus Machetornis and is currently classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

Identification

• 19.5–20 cm long and weighing 29–40 g, with a thin black bill and black legs.
• The nominate subspecies features olive-brown upperparts, yellow underparts, and a grey head with a thin dark eyestripe and whitish throat.
• Alternative subspecies exhibit heads that are less grey, resembling the olive-brown back, along with a yellower throat.

Habitat

Found across a disjunct range in South and Central America, the species inhabits drier open and semi-open habitats such as savannahs, pastures, and agricultural land while avoiding forested areas. Deforestation has recently enabled it to colonise new areas, such as northeast Ecuador.

Diet

This bird feeds primarily on insects found on the ground, often following cattle or other large mammals to catch flushed prey or hawking from high perches. It occasionally cleans ticks off mammals and hunts horseflies attempting to land on capybaras.

Did you know?

Its genus name derives from the Ancient Greek for fighter, and its specific name from Latin for quarrelsome, referencing its pugnacious behaviour and habit of dispossessing other species, such as rufous-fronted thornbirds, of their nests.