Genus of birds in the tyrant flycatcher family
Pyrocephalus is a genus of bird in the tyrant flycatcher family, Tyrannidae. 
The genus was introduced by the English ornithologist and bird artist John Gould in 1839 in Charles Darwin's "Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle". The type species was designated as the scarlet flycatcher ("Pyrocephalus rubinus") by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840. The name "Pyrocephalus" combines the Ancient Greek "purrhos" meaning "flame-coloured" or "red" and "-kephalos" meaning "-headed".
Taxonomy.
The tyrant flycatcher family, the Tyrannidae, is a group of passerine birds present only in the New World, and its members are generally drab in coloration. Within it, the subfamily Fluvicolinae comprises the genera "Pyrocephalus", "Contopus", "Empidonax", and "Sayornis". They likely shared a common ancestor in the "Contopus" or "Xenotriccus" genus before diversifying. The "Pyrocephalus" are most closely related to the "Sayornis" in terms of morphology, but genetic analysis shows that they may be more closely related to the "Fluvicola". The vermilion flycatcher likely evolved around 1.15–million years ago (mya), with the species on the Galápagos Islands having split off around 0.82–mya. The South American species/subspecies diverged about 0.56–mya.
Species.
The genus contains four species:
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;