TLAPAL-TŌTŌ-TL, literally, “dyed red bird,” Vermilion Flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) [FC: 47 Tlapaltototl] “Its body, its feathers are an over-all chili-red, but its wings, its tail are ashen, well colored, well textured. It is very chili-red, the color of dried chili. It is a night-singer…. Four times, five times a night does it sing. It is not fat.” Martin del Campo identified this as the Vermilion Flycatcher, which fits the description of its plumage. Also, in support of this identification is the fact that this flycatcher’s song, “a rapid … bubbling trill” “may be given at night” (Howell & Webb).
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 11 – Earthly Things, no. 14, Part XII, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1963); Rafael Martín del Campo, “Ensayo de interpretación del Libro Undecimo de la Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España de Fray Bernardino de Sahagún – 11 Las Aves (1),” Anales del Instituto de Biología Tomo XI, Núm. 1 (México, D.F., 1940); Steven N. G. Howell and Sophie Webb. A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America (Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, Tokyo, 1995); and, with quotation selections, synthesis, and analysis here also appearing in E. S. Hunn, "The Aztec Fascination with Birds: Deciphering Sixteenth-Century Sources," unpublished manuscript, 2022, cited here with permission.