Bird name:

Tropical Kingbird

Tyrannus melancholicus

Order

PASSERIFORMES

Family

Flycatchers (Tyrannidae)

Code 4

TRKI

Code 6

TYRMEL

ITIS

178282

Breeding Location:

Forest

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Casual to accidental

Egg Color:

Buff or pink with brown and purple marks

Number of Eggs:

3 - 5

Incubation Days:

15 - 16

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Twigs, grasses, stems, bark, plant fibers., Lined with moss, horsehair, and other fine materials.

Migration:

Migratory

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General

Tropical Kingbird: Large flycatcher with olive-gray upperparts, gray head, inconspicuous orange crown patch, pale throat, dark eye patch, and dark upper breast. Wings and tail are brown. Sexes are similar. Juvenile is browner.

Range and Habitat

Tropical Kingbird: Breeds in southeastern Arizona. Spends winters south of U.S.-Mexico border, but also wanders widely, very rarely to Pacific coast. Preferred habitats include woodland borders, savannas, and riverside groves.

Breeding and Nesting

Tropical Kingbird: Three to five buff or pink eggs with brown and purple markings are laid in a nest made of twigs, grass, stems, bark, and plant fibers, lined with plant down, moss, horsehair, and other fine materials, and built 8 to 20 feet above the ground on a tree branch. Incubation ranges from 15 to 16 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Tropical Kingbird: Eats insects, fruits, and berries. Hunts from conspicuous, often high perches; sometimes forages on the ground.

Readily Eats

Meal Worms

Vocalization

Tropical Kingbird: Song is a series of liquid trills. Call is a "tere-ee-ee, tril-il-il-iil-l", "tre-e-e-e-eip", or "pip-pip-pip-pip."

Similar Species

Tropical Kingbird: Couch's Kingbird has different call and usually separate range. Western and Cassin's kingbirds lack dark cheeks and have less-forked tails. Cassin's Kingbird also has a darker breast, and Western Kingbird has white outer tail feathers. Thick-billed Kingbird usually has whiter underparts and darker head. Brown-crested, Ash-throated and Dusky-capped flycatchers have darker, browner crowns, and unforked tails.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Crown

The crown is the top part of the birds head.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America