EASTERN KINGBIRD
(Tyrannus tyrannus)

eBird describes the Eastern Kingbird as follows:  Dark brown to black above and clean white below. White tail tip. Flycatcher about the size of a robin. Perches out in the open; often seen on tops of tall trees, snags on forest edges, fences, and utility lines. Watches for large insects and makes quick flights to snatch them. Unique, metallic twittering song often heard in summer. Winters in South America.

I saw my first Eastern Kingbird at Sabine Woods Sanctuary on the afternoon of April 27, 2020.  I was at the eastern-most water feature when the bird visited the large Mulberry tree located there.  Good light and a steady perch allowed me to get some of the best pictures of my day!

Eastern Kingbird at Sabine Woods, April 27, 2020.

On the afternoon of May 21, 2020, I watched an Eastern Kingbird who was perched on a railing at the closed visitor center in Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.  Here is my picture from that day. 

Eastern Kingbird at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge visitor center, May 21, 2020.


“Cool Facts” about the Eastern Kingbird, from All About Birds…

    • 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.
    • It’s not called a kingbird for nothing. The Eastern Kingbird has a crown of yellow, orange, or red feathers on its head, but the crown is usually concealed. When it encounters a potential predator the kingbird may simultaneously raise its bright crown patch, stretch its beak wide open to reveal a red gape, and dive-bomb the intruder.
    • The scientific name Tyrannus means “tyrant, despot, or king,” referring to the aggression kingbirds exhibit with each other and with other species. When defending their nests they will attack much larger predators like hawks, crows, and squirrels. They have been known to knock unsuspecting Blue Jays out of trees.
    • One of the byproducts of being an insectivore is that both adults and nestlings regurgitate pellets of insect exoskeletons.
    • Kingbirds are “passerines,” a taxonomic group commonly referred to as perching birds or songbirds. But kingbirds and other flycatchers are in a different subgroup from true songbirds, and they don’t have nearly as complex voices. Rather than learning their calls they probably perform them innately. The young begin to give adult calls at about two weeks of age.
    • Kingbirds sometimes catch small frogs, treating them the same way they deal with large insects: beating them against a perch and swallowing them whole. Eastern Kingbirds apparently rely almost completely on insects and fruit for moisture; they are rarely seen drinking water.
    • The oldest recorded Eastern Kingbird was a female, and at least 10 years, 1 month old when she was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in New York in 2007.