White-tailed Tityra
Tityra leucura
- Family
- Tityras, Becards, and Allies (Tityridae)
- Order
- Passeriformes
Overview
The white-tailed tityra (Tityra leucura) is a medium-sized passerine bird about 19 cm long with pied plumage, mostly white or very pale grey, but with a black crown and wings.
It is found in a small area of the Amazon rainforest near the Madeira River in the far west of Brazil close to the Peruvian border. It was first discovered in 1829 but the one specimen collected then, an immature male, sat forgotten in the Natural History Museum, Vienna until 1868, when August von Pelzeln concluded it represented an undescribed species. For many decades after that, no further individuals were seen; its close similarity to the widespread black-crowned tityra resulted in its being widely considered an aberrant specimen of that.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Range and habitat
Rio Madeira-Rio Tapajós interfluvium, south-central Brazil.
Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.
Continents
Countries
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: White-tailed tityra
- eBird: sightings, maps and photos
- xeno-canto: sound recordings
- Birds of the World: full species account (subscription)
- BirdLife DataZone: status and threats
- IUCN Red List (threat status)
- AviList global checklist (taxonomy)
Last updated September 29, 2026.
