On 19 July Dave Stejskal found a female, ABA Code-3, Rose-throated Becard (Pachyramphus aglaiae) about a mile south of Tubac, Arizona, along the Anza Trail.
What is a becard? In 1990, Sibley and Ahlquist considered the genera Tityra, Schiffornis and Pachyramphus (becards) to form a distinct group and they placed them all in with the tyrant flycatchers. In the late 1990s, following work by Prum et al., the group was removed from the Tyrannidae (New World flycatchers) and placed them with the cotingas. In 2004, Chesser found this group was more closely related to manakins, so in 2005 the South American Checklist Committee (SACC), a committee of the AOU, removed the genera from the Cotingidae and temporarily placed them into Incertae Sedis (uncertain position). In 2006 Ericson et al. established that the group should be placed in a new family, Tityridae, and that is where they will likely remain.
Rose-throated Becard has bred in Southeast Arizona and has wintered in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The AZ subspecies, P. a. albiventris, occurs from western Mexico south to Guerrero and Zacatecas states. Of the other 7 subspecies, one ranges as far south as western Panama.
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