Tropical Kingbird

Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus)

Tropical Kingbird

Order : Passeriformes
Also known as Passerines or perching bird’s. Any member of the largest avian order which includes more than 5,700 species, more than half of all living birds. Passerines are true perching birds with four toed feet, three toes facing forward and one larger toe facing backwards.

Family : Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae)
Any of about 429 species of Passerines which occur throughout North and South America but are mainly tropical in distribution. Most are insectivorous, often taking their prey in flight, but certain species feed mainly on berries or fruit. Most are fairly plain and none have the complex vocal capabilities of the song birds.

Name : Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus)
Length : 21 - 22 cm ( 8½ - 9 in )

This species ranges from southern North America to South America but is not know to breed throughout the Caribbean except in Trinidad and Tobago and perhaps Grenada. Distinguished by it’s Olive - green back, grey or greenish- yellow breast becoming bright yellow on the belly, dark, forked tail and grey head with dark eye streaks, this nimble flycatcher is a bird of open countryside where it may be seen alone or with a mate. The Tropical Kingbird will often sit on roadside wires waiting for flying insects, which typical of tyrant flycatchers, it will take on the wing. The nest is an open cup built of twigs and lined with grass and placed high up in a tree where 2 - 4 eggs are laid. Both parents feed the young, and aggressively defend the nest, attacking any other birds, including hawks, that invade their territory.


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