Kingbird


Tyrannus is a genus of small passerine birds of the tyrant flycatcher family. The majority are named as kingbirds.
They prefer semi-open or open areas. These birds wait on an exposed perch and then catch insects in flight. They have long pointed wings and large broad bills. These birds tend to defend their breeding territories aggressively, often chasing away much larger birds. A kingbird was photographed in 2009 defending its young by landing on and sinking its talons into the back of a red-tailed hawk and pecking its skull until the red-tailed hawk gave up and flew away.
The genus was introduced in 1799 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède with the eastern kingbird as the type species. The genus name is the Latin word for "tyrant".

Species

The genus contains 13 species:
ImageCommon NameScientific nameDistribution
Snowy-throated kingbirdTyrannus niveigularisColombia, Ecuador, and Peru
White-throated kingbirdTyrannus albogularisBolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, and in the Guianas of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana
Tropical kingbirdTyrannus melancholicusSouthern Arizona and the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States through Central America, South America as far south as central Argentina and western Peru, and on Trinidad and Tobago
Couch's kingbirdTyrannus couchiiSouthern Texas along the Gulf Coast to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, Belize and northern Guatemala.
Cassin's kingbirdTyrannus vociferansCalifornia and from Montana to Utah, along the eastern Rocky Mountains, and northern Central America
Thick-billed kingbirdTyrannus crassirostrisSoutheastern Arizona, extreme southwestern New Mexico, and northern Sonora,, in the United States and Mexico, through western and western-coastal Mexico, south to western Guatemala.
Western kingbirdTyrannus verticalisFlorida and the Pacific coast of southern Mexico and Central America.
Scissor-tailed flycatcherTyrannus forficatusTexas, Oklahoma, Kansas; western portions of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri; far eastern New Mexico; and northeastern Mexico
Fork-tailed flycatcherTyrannus savanaCentral Mexico to central Argentina
Eastern kingbirdTyrannus tyrannusOpen areas across North America
Gray kingbirdTyrannus dominicensisUnited States, mainly in Florida, through Central America, from Cuba to Puerto Rico as well as eastward towards all across the Lesser West Indies, south to Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, the Guiana, and Colombia.
Giant kingbirdTyrannus cubensisCuba
Loggerhead kingbirdTyrannus caudifasciatusThe Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and, very rarely, in the United States.