Caatinga Black-Tyrant

The Sao Francisco black tyrant is 16 to 16.5 cm (6.3 to 6.5 in) long. One female weighed 20.5 g (0.72 oz). Adult males are almost entirely shiny black. Their wings have a wide white band at the base of the primaries that is conspicuous in flight but usually hidden when perched. Adult females have a mostly brownish gray head and upperparts with a rufous-buff rump, uppertail coverts, and base of the tail. The rest of their tail is dark. Their wings are brownish gray with whitish edges on the innermost remiges and pale tips on the coverts that show as two wing bars. Their underparts are mostly whitish with heavy dusky streaking and a buffish wash on the breast and undertail coverts. Both sexes have a blackish bill and dark gray or blue-gray legs and feet. Males have a red iris; the female's is orange-red.

The Sao Francisco black tyrant is found in east-central Brazil's São Francisco River basin. It has several discrete subpopulations in southwestern Bahia, northern and central Minas Gerais, southeastern Tocantins, northeastern Goiás, and the Federal District. It primarily inhabits caatinga scrublands and semi-deciduous dry forest. It greatly favors areas with outcrops of limestone or sandstone though it occasionally occurs some distance from them.

The Sao Francisco black tyrant is assumed to feed mostly on insects though details are lacking. It usually forages singly or in pairs, though in the non-breeding season is sometimes joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It perches unobtrusively at any level of the forest but usually in the canopy or sub-canopy. It captures prey mostly with short sallies to glean it from leaves and branches and occasionally in mid-air "(hawking)". It will also drop to the ground to take prey.