Eastern Kingbird
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Tyrannidae
Genus: Tyrannus
Species: tyrannus
**Audio Coming Soon**
Description
-
Length: 8.50"
-
Wing span: 15."
-
Weight: 1.4oz (40 grams)
-
Medium sized songbird
-
Black cap and back, white belly with light gray on the sides of the breast
-
Black square tipped tail with white tail feathers on the tips
-
Very little difference in plumage between males, females and juveniles
Factoids:
- The Eastern Kingbird is highly aggressive toward nest predators and larger birds. Hawks and crows are attacked regularly. A kingbird was observed to knock a Blue Jay out of a tree and cause it to hide under bush to escape the attack
- During the summer the Eastern Kingbird eats mostly flying insects and maintains a breeding territory that it defends vigorously against all other kingbirds. In the winter along the Amazon, however, it has a completely different lifestyle: it travels in flocks and eats fruit
- Parent Eastern Kingbirds feed their young for about seven weeks. Because of this relatively long period of dependence, a pair generally raises only one brood of young per nesting season
- Captures most prey by aerial hawking from an elevated perch. Also grabs insects off vegetation with its bill
All photographs and audio clips are ©Jamie Mullin 2006
Sources: Cornell Lab of Ornithology & The Sibley Guide to Birds.
 |
|---|
 |
 |
 |