| Photo Information |
Copyright: Luis Vargas (Chiza)
![Silver Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 34 W: 0 N: 197]](http://i1.treknature.com/misc/s-n-g.gif) (964) |
| Genre: Animals |
| Medium: Color |
| Date Taken: 2008-12-28 |
| Categories: Birds |
| Exposure: f/5.6, 1/320 seconds |
| More Photo Info: [view] |
| Photo Version: Original Version |
| Date Submitted: 2009-01-06 18:07 |
| Viewed: 676 |
| Points: 6 |
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note [Spanish] |
Tropical Kingbird
From Wikipedia
Tyrannus melancholicus
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Subclass: Neornithes
Infraclass: Neognathae
Superorder: Neoaves
Order: Passeriformes
Suborder: Tyranni
Infraorder: Tyrannides
Family: Tyrannidae
Genus: Tyrannus
Species: T. melancholicus
Binomial name
Tyrannus melancholicus
(Vieillot, 1819)
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. Birds from the northernmost and southern breeding areas migrate to warmer parts of the range after breeding.
Description and ecology
An adult sitting alert in Panama CityAn 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.
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.
Their breeding habitat is semi-open areas with trees and shrubs, including gardens and roadsides. Tropical Kingbirds like to observe their surroundings from a prominent open perch, usually high in a tree, undertaking long sally flights to acrobatically catch insects in mid-air, sometimes hovering to pick food off vegetation[1]. They also eat some fruit[2], foraging for these even in disturbed habitat. As they keep mainly to the upper levels of trees, they find little profit in following mixed-species feeding flocks in the understory[3].
These birds aggressively defend their territory against intruders, even much larger birds such as Magnificent Frigatebirds, toucans, caracaras or hawks. In a study in Parque Nacional de La Macarena of Colombia, parasitism by microfilariae and trypanosomas (presumably T. everetti) was infrequently recorded in Tropical Kindbirds[4].
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.
Widespread, common and adapatable, the Tropical Kingbird is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN.[5] |
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