Cock-tailed Tyrant vs Common brassbuttons

Alectrurus tricolor compared with Cotula coronopifolia

Key Differences

Cock-tailed Tyrant is Vulnerable while Common brassbuttons is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Cock-tailed Tyrant	Common brassbuttons
Kingdom	Animalia (Animals)	Plantae (Plants)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)
Class	Aves (Birds)	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)
Order	Passeriformes (Songbirds)	Asterales (Daisies & Sunflowers)
Family	Tyrannidae	Asteraceae (Daisy Family)
Genus	Alectrurus	Cotula
Species	Alectrurus tricolor	Cotula coronopifolia

Conservation Status

Cock-tailed Tyrant

VU — Vulnerable

Common brassbuttons

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Cock-tailed Tyrant	Common brassbuttons
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Cock-tailed Tyrant

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Found in Norway. Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Common brassbuttons

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (Morocco), Asia (Japan), Europe (15 countries), North America (Canada, Mexico, United States), and South America (6 countries).

Cock-tailed Tyrant

The cock-tailed tyrant (Alectrurus tricolor) is a striking and unusual flycatcher in the family Tyrannidae, named for the remarkable elongated, spatula-shaped outer tail feathers of the male, which can exceed the body length and are displayed during aerial courtship flights over open grasslands. The species inhabits wet and seasonally flooded grasslands, cerrado savanna, and campos in the interior of South America, including central Brazil, eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina — not Norway, as erroneous database entries suggest. Males combine conspicuous black, white, and rufous plumage with their extraordinary tail streamers in an elaborate display to attract females on leks; females are cryptically streaked brown. The cock-tailed tyrant is a ground- and low-vegetation forager, preying on insects and other small invertebrates gleaned from grass stems and caught in aerial sallies. The species is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN due to extensive and continuing conversion and degradation of its native Neotropical grassland habitat through intensive soy and sugarcane agriculture, cattle ranching, fire management changes, and drainage of seasonally flooded grasslands. Populations have declined significantly across much of its range, particularly in Brazil and Paraguay. The species is a flagship for threatened grassland conservation in South America, where relatively little protection has historically been directed at open-country habitats compared to forest ecosystems.

Common brassbuttons

Common brassbuttons (<em>Cotula coronopifolia</em>) is a small annual or perennial herb with a remarkably broad global distribution, occurring across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. This species typically inhabits diverse terrestrial environments, often colonizing wet or damp areas such as salt marshes, mudflats, stream margins, and disturbed roadsides. The common brassbuttons has not been formally evaluated on the IUCN Red List. A member of the family Asteraceae, it produces distinctive button-like yellow flowerheads that give the species its common name. Originally native to southern Africa, the species has spread widely and is considered naturalized or invasive in many regions outside its native range. It often thrives in seasonally flooded habitats and tolerates saline soils, demonstrating considerable ecological flexibility. Biological traits of this species remain poorly documented in the scientific literature.