tyrant flycatcher
nounEtymology The English name corresponds to translingual Tyrannidae, the taxonomic name. Tyrant flycatchers are so named because of the aggressive behavior of kingbirds (of genus Tyrannus, the type genus of the Tyrannidae) when defending their breeding territory.
1
Any of a group of passerine birds, of family Tyrannidae, that inhabit the Americas.
- In most parts of tropical America we may always find some species of woodpecker[,] tanager, bush-shrike, chatterer, trogon, toucan, cuckoo, and tyrant-flycatcher; and a few days' active search will produce more variety than can be here met with in as many months.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 64: