Black-backed tody-flycatcher
species of bird

The black-backed tody-flycatcher (Poecilotriccus pulchellus) is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. It is endemic to Peru.
Taxonomy and systematics
The black-backed tody-flycatcher was originally described in 1874 as Todirostrum puchellum. Following a 1988 publication, taxonomic systems moved puchellum and several other species from Todirostrum to genus Poecilotriccus. By the early twenty-first century genus Poecilotriccus had species called both "tody-tyrant" and "tody-flycatcher" so taxonomic systems began renaming the "tyrants" to "flycatcher". The black-backed tody-flycatcher shares genus Poecilotriccus with 11 other species.
The black-backed tody-flycatcher is monotypic. However, during the twentieth century several authors treated it and the golden-winged tody-flycatcher (P. calopterus) as conspecific.
Description
The black-backed tody-flycatcher is about 9.5 cm (3.7 in) long; one male weighed 8.7 g (0.31 oz) and one female 7.2 g (0.25 oz). Adult males have a mostly black head with a white spot behind the eye, a white "moustache", and a white throat.
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This entry incorporates text from “Black-backed tody-flycatcher” 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.