Art by Barry Kent MacKay
An All-Creatures.org
Art and Photo Presentation

(Artwork - 070)
Vermilion Flycatcher
(Pyrocephalus rubinus)

These little birds are well known even to people who don’t usually notice birds.  That’s because they live in open habitats – desert, scrubby arid regions and pine barrens, partly because they tend to sit out in the open, but also because of the brilliant colours of the male.
 
I have shown the northern subspecies, found in the dry, desert and semi-desert regions of eastern California, New Mexico, Arizona, western Texas and parts of adjoining Oklahoma, and northern Mexico.   But various subspecies occur throughout much of Central and South America, including two subspecies endemic to the Galapagos Islands (where I saw the species for the first time, about 45 years ago), south as far as Argentina.  Birds who live in the higher latitudes, northern and southern hemisphere, are somewhat migratory.
 
This painting shows the red and dark brown male, and the more modestly coloured female.  It is life size in gouache watercolour, on paper.

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