Tropical Kingbird

Tropical Kingbird

About the photographs

About the map

Play sound from this species

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

An extremely common and widespread bird of the American tropics, the Tropical Kingbird barely reaches the United States in south Texas and southern Arizona.

Cool Facts

• Although a widespread bird and a seemingly typical kingbird, the Tropical Kingbird is among the most specialized of flycatchers. It forages almost exclusively by sallying after large flying insects.
• The Tropical Kingbird has become a regular fall visitor to the Pacific Coast of the United States. Nearly every year a few wandering kingbirds are discovered there. Most of these are immature birds.

Description

• Size: 18-23 cm (7-9 in)
• Weight: 32-43 g (1.13-1.52 ounces)

• Medium-sized songbird.
• Back grayish green.
• Underparts yellow.
• Head gray.
• Plain blackish brown tail.

• Wings rounded.
• Faint dark mask around eyes.
• Throat white, shading to gray on upper chest.
• Long, thick black bill. Pale edging to wing and tail feathers.
• Tail blackish, long and notched.
• Concealed reddish orange patch on top of head.
• Legs black.
• Eyes black.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar, except male has more notched wing feathers (not visible).

Immature

Similar to adult except red in crown is reduced and wingtip feathers lack notches.

Similar Species

• Very similar to Couch's Kingbird; best separated by voice.
• Cassin's Kingbird has darker gray head, back and breast; more contrasting white chin, and white tip to tail.
• Western Kingbird has white outer edges to its black tail, a grayer chest, and a smaller bill.
• For a more detailed discussion of how to distinguish the yellow kingbird species, with photographs of specimens in the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, go to http://birds.cornell.edu/crows/kingbirdsX.htm.

Sound

Song a twittery "pip-pip-pip-pip."

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Breeds from southern Arizona and Texas southward to southern South America, and in Caribbean.

Winter Range

Withdraws from Arizona and northern Mexico in winter, but is resident in rest of range.

Habitat

Open country with scattered trees, urban areas, mangrove forests, cactus forests.

Food

Flying insects, some fruit.

Behavior

Foraging

Aerial hawking from elevated perch.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Open cup of vines, roots, twigs, weed stems, and dry grasses, lined with hair or nothing. Placed in high crotch of isolated tree.

Egg Description

Whitish or pale pink with variable amount of dark blotching, densest around large end.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and with sparse gray down.

Conservation Status

Lives well with people. Range has expanded with human-induced changes in landscape.

Other Names

Tyrannus mélancolique (French)
Tirano tropical (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Stouffer, P. C., and R. T. Chesser. 1998. Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus). In The Birds of North America, No. 358 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.