Tyrannus savana
Status: No accepted records
Taxonomy: Four subspecies are recognized, breeding from southern Mexico to South America (AviList 2025).
The southernmost two subspecies in South America are northward migrants in fall; most North American records are from Sep-Nov and are mostly overshoot migrants of subspecies savana with fewer reports of monachus (Jahn and Tuero 2020).
Comments: A report of two in Deuel Co 27 Aug 2023 was not accepted by NOURC, noting that the presence of two birds “would be exceptional” (Brogie 2023).
There are about six records from states adjoining Nebraska, all in fall except for one in northwestern Missouri Apr 2009; others are from Sep-Nov in central Wyoming, eastern Colorado (1-2), central Kansas, and central Iowa (eBird.org, accessed Mar 2024). Those identified to subspecies were savana; most records are from the Great Lakes area and the Gulf and Atlantic coasts (eBird.org, accessed Mar 2024).
Literature Cited
AviList Core Team, 2025. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025. https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2025.
Brogie, M.A. 2023. 2022 (34th) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 91: 114-122.
Jahn, A.E., and D.T. Tuero. 2020. Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.fotfly.01.
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2025. Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Birds of Nebraska – Online
Updated 17 Jul 2025