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Long-tailed tyrant

species of bird

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ1048555
Source-derived summary

The long-tailed tyrant (Colonia colonus) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is found in Central America from Honduras to Panama and in every mainland South American country except Chile and Uruguay.

Taxonomy and systematics

The long-tailed tyrant was originally described as Muscicapa colonus, erroneously including it in the Old World flycatcher family.

The long-tailed tyrant is the only member of genus Colonia. It has these five subspecies:

C. c. leuconota (Lafresnaye, 1842)

C. c. fuscicapillus (Sclater, PL, 1862)

C. c. poecilonota (Cabanis, 1849)

C. c. niveiceps Zimmer, JT, 1930

C. c. colonus (Vieillot, 1818)

Description

Male long-tailed tyrants are 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11 in) and females 18 to 22 cm (7.1 to 8.7 in) long; these measurements do not include the elongated central tail feathers.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Long-tailed tyrant” as species of bird. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Long-tailed, tyrant and species.

Editorial reviewA sound reference starting point where classification, measurement and the date of the underlying evidence remain visible. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1842, 1862, 1849, 1930—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Long-tailed, tyrant and species providing the first useful test.
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Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Long-tailed tyrant”, the useful work is to connect “species of bird” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1048555. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1842, 1862, 1849 and 1930.

Critical limits

Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Long-tailed tyrant” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.