Silky flycatchers are unrelated to the tyrant flycatchers (family Tyrannidae) and are more closely related to the waxwings (family Bombycillidae).
Syrinx morphology has also provided characters useful for modern taxonomic revisions of such groups as the tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae).
The becards are considered by some authorities to belong with the tyrant flycatchers in the family Tyrannidae.
Manakins are now instead classified by some authorities as the subfamily Piprinae within the family of New World, or tyrant, flycatchers.
Flycatcher, any of a number of perching birds (order Passeriformes) that dart out to capture insects on the wing, particularly members of the Old World songbird family Muscicapidae and of the New World family Tyrannidae, which consists of the tyrant flycatchers.
Intermediate tracheobronchial: various modifications of cartilages and membranes; one or two pairs of intrinsic muscles; pessulus present or absent; found in the sharpbill (Oxyruncus) and most manakins and tyrant flycatchers.
Among birds nesting in the Northern Hemisphere, hummingbirds, tyrant flycatchers, tanagers, orioles, bee-eaters, and swifts have distinct tropical affinities; in recent geological times these birds gradually spread northward as glacial ice receded and the continent became warmer.
The passerine syrinx exists in four basic types: Unspecialized: relatively little modification of the tracheobronchial region; few, if any, cartilaginous specializations, and no intrinsic muscles; found in broadbills (Eurylaimidae), pittas (Pittidae), New Zealand wrens, asities (Philepittidae), plantcutters, most cotingas, and a few manakins and tyrant flycatchers.
The South American families occurring in the Greater Antilles are the hummingbirds (Trochilidae), tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae), Bananaquit (Coerebidae) and tanagers (Thraupidae), all of which are represented in Puerto Rico.
Colonization from the islands to the mainland has similarly been reported within the West Indies for several bird species (e.g. Icterus orioles, [ 34]; Myiarchus tyrant-flycatchers [ 35]; possibly Amazona parrots, [ 36]).
