Tropical Kingbird
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[Photo] Tropical Kingbird, Liberia, Costa Rica. Date 2005. Author Ken Erickson Kenvanportbc

The Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus) is a large tyrant flycatcher. This bird breeds from southern Arizona and the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the USA through Central America, South America as far as south as central Argentina and western Peru, and on Trinidad and Tobago.

Their breeding habitat is semi-open areas with trees and shrubs, including gardens and roadsides. They make a flimsy cup nest in a tree. The female incubates the typical clutch of two or three cream eggs, which are marked with reddish-brown, for 16 days, with about 18-19 further days to fledging.

These birds aggressively defend their territory against intruders, even much larger birds such as Magnificent Frigatebirds, toucans, caracaras or hawks.

The adult Tropical Kingbird is 22cm long and weighs 39g. The head is pale grey, with a darker eye mask, an orange crown stripe, and a heavy grey bill. The back is greyish-green, and the wing and forked tail are brown. The throat is pale grey, becoming olive on the breast, with the rest of the underparts being yellow. The sexes are similar, but young birds have pale buff edges on the wing coverts,

Birds from the northernmost and southern breeding areas migrate to warmer parts of the range after breeding.

Tropical Kingbirds wait on a prominent open perch and sally out to catch insects in flight, sometimes hovering to pick food off vegetation. They also eat some berries.

The call is a high-pitched twittering trill, tree-e-e-e-e-e-e, with a more complex version sung by the male at dawn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Kingbird

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