Vermilion Flycatcher

The scarlet flycatcher is about 14 cm (5.5 in) long. and weighs 12 to 15 g (0.42 to 0.53 oz).Adult males have an intense poppy red forehead and crown down to the eye. Their lores and ear coverts are dark grayish brown and form a "mask". Their nape, upperparts, and tail are blackish and their rump blackish brown. Their wings are blackish with paler edges on the coverts and tertials. The lower part of their face, their throat, and their underparts are a slightly lighter shade of poppy red than the crown, with sometimes an orangey tinge. Adult females have a grayish brown head with grayish lores and an indistinct whitish supercilium. Their back and rump are the same grayish brown as the head and the uppertail coverts and tail are a duskier grayish brown. Their wings are mostly a darker grayish brown than the back. Their throat and underparts are dull white with grayish brown streaks throughout and sometimes a pale yellow tinge on the belly. Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a brownish black bill, and blackish to brownish black legs and feet.

The scarlet flycatcher is found over the course of the year from southeastern Colombia east across central Brazil and south from there through eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, eastern Bolivia, and southern Brazil into northern Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. (See the Movement section for details.) It inhabits semi-open to open landscapes such as open woodland, the edges of denser woodlands, pastures with scattered trees, and agricultural areas.

The scarlet flycatcher's diet and foraging behavior are not known in detail. It feeds mostly on insects caught in mid-air with sallies from a perch ("hawking") and also from the ground.