| Cassin's kingbird | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Tyrannidae |
| Genus: | Tyrannus |
| Species: | T. vociferans |
| Binomial name | |
| Tyrannus vociferans Swainson, 1826 | |
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Cassin's kingbird (Tyrannus vociferans) is a large tyrant flycatcher native to western North America. The name of this bird commemorates the American ornithologist John Cassin.
Cassin's kingbird was formally described in 1826 by English naturalist William John Swainson under the current binomial name Tyrannus vociferans. The type locality is Temascaltepec, Mexico. [2] [3] The specific epithet vociferans is Latin for "shouting". [4]
Two subspecies are recognised: [5]
Adults have a gray head with slightly darker cheeks; a dark unforked tail with a buffy fringe and gray-olive underparts. They have a pale throat and deep yellow lower breast.
Juveniles are duller and have pale edges on their wings.
Measurements:
Cassin's kingbird and the western kingbird are similar in appearance. Cassin's is a little larger than the western and the upper parts are a darker gray than the western. The most distinctive difference between these birds is that the Cassin's has a thin white edge along the distal end of the tail feathers, while the western kingbird has a thin white edge that runs along the side of the tail feathers. [8] This difference can be seen in the adjacent image.
In the summer, these birds can be found in California and from Montana to Utah, along the eastern Rocky Mountains. Their habitat includes rangelands and savannas.
These birds migrate to their winter quarters between Southern California and northern Central America. They are permanent residents in south-central Mexico, and their main wintering ranges are west of the Gulf of California on Baja California Sur, and east of the sea on the mainland of western Mexico.
They build a bulky nest on a horizontal tree limb in mid-story or the canopy of trees. The three to five spotted white eggs have an incubation period of 18 to 19 days.
The Cassin's kingbird primarily feeds on insects it preys upon from high perches by hawking. It also eats berries and fruits in lesser quantities.
The call is a high-pitched shorter followed by a longer chirp, sounding like chi-beer.
In early spring, presumably after having chosen (or shown up with) their mate, they launch into a peculiar dance. With excited high-pitched calls, they hover in unison, wings outstretched, over a favorite perch. This dance takes place several times a day over several days, over several separate sites in an area covering 2 to 3 acres (8,100 to 12,100 m2). The sites chosen for the dance appear to be the same sites used as hunting perches during the spring and summer.
The eastern kingbird is a large tyrant flycatcher native to the Americas. The bird is predominantly dark gray with white underbelly and pointed wings. Eastern kingbirds are conspicuous and are commonly found in open areas with scattered trees and bushes, where they perch while foraging for insects. The Eastern kingbird is migratory, with its breeding range spread across North America and its wintering range in Central and South America.
The western kingbird is a large tyrant flycatcher found throughout western environments of North America, as far south as Mexico.
The American dusky flycatcher, or simply dusky flycatcher, is a small insectivorous passerine of the tyrant flycatcher family.
Tyrannus is a genus of small passerine birds of the tyrant flycatcher family. The majority are named as kingbirds.
The scissor-tailed flycatcher, also known as the Texas bird-of-paradise and swallow-tailed flycatcher, is a long-tailed bird of the genus Tyrannus, whose members are collectively referred to as kingbirds. The kingbirds are a group of large insectivorous (insect-eating) birds in the tyrant flycatcher (Tyrannidae) family. The scissor-tailed flycatcher is found in North and Central America.
The tropical kingbird is a large tyrant flycatcher. This bird breeds from southern Arizona and the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States through Central America, South America as far as south as central Argentina and eastern Peru, and on Trinidad and Tobago. Birds from the northernmost and southern breeding areas migrate to warmer parts of the range after breeding.
The gray kingbird or grey kingbird, also known as pitirre, petchary or white-breasted kingbird, is a passerine bird.
The pied water tyrant is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It breeds in tropical South America from Panama and Trinidad south to Bolivia.
Couch's kingbird is a passerine tyrant flycatcher of the kingbird genus. It is found from southern Texas along the Gulf Coast to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, Belize and northern Guatemala. It is also found in the lower stretches of the Rio Grande Valley.
The common tody-flycatcher or black-fronted tody-flycatcher is a very small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It breeds from southern Mexico to northwestern Peru, eastern Bolivia and southern, eastern and northeast Brazil.
The Cordilleran flycatcher is a small insect-eating bird. It is a small Empidonax flycatcher, with typical length ranging from 13 to 17 cm.
The fork-tailed flycatcher is a passerine bird of the tyrant flycatcher family, and is the member of a genus typically referred to as kingbirds. Named for their distinguishingly long, forked tail, fork-tailed flycatchers are seen in lightly forested or grassland areas, from southern Mexico, to south past Argentina. They are most frequently observed sitting on conspicuous perches waiting for flying arthropods to fly past, they then sally out, eat their prey, and return to their perches. Northern populations near southern Mexico tend to be permanent residents, while fork-tailed flycatchers that live further south are migrants with a reputation to wander as far north as the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.
The ash-throated flycatcher is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family.
The thick-billed kingbird is a large bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. This bird breeds from southeastern Arizona, extreme southwestern New Mexico, and northern Sonora,, in the United States and Mexico, through western and western-coastal Mexico, south to western Guatemala.
