English                 -          Great Kiskadee

Portuguese          -          Bem-te-vi

Latin                      -          Pitangus sulphuratus

The Great Kiskadee is a passerine bird. It is a large tyrant flycatcher. Sometimes its genus Pitangus is considered monotypic, with the Lesser Kiskadee. Named for its loud ringing kis-ka-dee calls. The Great Kiskadee is also the National Bird of Suriname.                       

Great Kiskadees have big heads, short, thick bills and stocky bodies. They can reach 27cm in length and weigh up to 68 grams. They have a white head with black crown and bandit-like black mask on the face. The black mask reduces reflection of the sun from the surface of the water and intensity of sunlight during flight. The Chest, belly and undersides of the body are covered with yellow plumage. They have a white throat and brown wings. The Bill and legs are black.       

They range from Southern Texas, down through to Central America and into to South America, from Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana down to central Argentina. Great Kiskadees prefer habit with Stream side thickets, groves, orchards and can also be found in towns and cities. In its limited Texas range, found most commonly in open woodlands near water, but may occur in any habitat with good-sized trees. In the tropics, occurs widely in many semi-open habitats, usually avoiding dense unbroken forest.

Great Kiskadees are omnivorous feeders which seems to break the rules in the flycatcher family with its feeding habits. Not only will it fly out from a perch to catch flying insects (like beetles, wasps, grasshoppers, bees and moths) in the air like normal flycatchers but it will also perch on branches low over water and plunge into the water for fish, tadpoles and frogs. They will also feed on lizards, mice and baby birds as well as berries, small fruits and certain seeds. 

Great Kiskadees are monogamous. They nests in trees, or bushes, between 3 and 9 metres above the ground, The nest is located in a fork of a tree where it is firmly attached. The nest is a bulky dome-shaped structure made with sticks, grass, mosses and bark. It is lined with soft materials, such as wool and feathers, and has a single entry hole on the side.The female lays two to five creamy-white and brown speckled eggs and incubates them for around 15 days. Both adults feed and protect the chicks. The nestlings fledge after 35 days after hatching.
Young reach their sexual maturity at one year.
This species produces more than one brood per season.

Great Kiskadees have an extremely large range and due to deforestation their range and numbers appear to be increasing. Even though they are an attractive bird, due to their feedings habits and aggressive nature they are not a species that is captured for the caged bird trade. Therefore the Great Kiskadee is classified as a species “of least concerned”.

Photos of the Great Kiskadee were taken at Ilha do Frade - Vitoria - Espirito Santo

English             -               King Vulture

Portuguese     -               Urubu-rei

Latin                -                Sarcoramphus papa

The King Vulture is a large bird found in Central and South America. They are a member of the New World vulture family “Cathartidae”. King Vultures were popular figures in the Mayan codices as well as in local folklore and medicine.                 

The most noticeable difference between King Vultures and other vultures is that they are largely covered with white plumage. Their wings are mostly white with black tips. The ruff, flight and tail feathers are grey to black; the black areas have an almost opalescent sheen. Their wingspan can reach up to 198 cm and from head to tail they are about 81 cm long. An adult can weigh up to 4.5 kg. Their bare head, neck and beak are red, orange and yellow, with very striking eyes that are straw, white or silver in colour. Their beaks have a hooked tip and cutting edges, which are very strong. Their feet are grey. There’s no differences between the males and females. When they are young, King Vultures are covered with white downy feathers.        

King Vultures range from Southern Mexico to Southern Argentina, where they prefer to live around savannahs, open regions or lightly forested areas where they are able to have plenty of options for food. For King Vultures, home really comes down to being any place where they can get their food needs met.

Like all Vultures, King Vultures consume carrion. The carrion may have died from natural causes or can be the remains of what predators have killed. The King Vulture is able to consume food that has recently died or that has been left to rot in the heat. They are able to consume it without getting ill. As a result they really do offer a necessary element in the balance of nature. Even though King Vultures dominate other carrion eaters at the feeding site, they rely on other stronger-beaked carrion-eaters to initially rip open the hide of a carcass.They have a thick, strong beak which is well adapted for tearing, and long, thick claws for holding the meat. They have a keen eyesight and sense of smell that they use to find their food.       

A male King Vulture sexually matures when it is about four or five years old, with females maturing slightly earlier.  King Vultures mate for life and mainly breed during the dry season. The nest is usually in hollows of rotting logs, stumps or crevices in trees. To ward off potential predators, King Vultures keep their nests foul-smelling. The female generally lays a single unmarked white egg per season. Both parents incubate the egg for up to 58 days before hatching. If the egg is lost, it will often be replaced within six weeks. The parents share incubating and brooding duties until the chick is about a week old, after which they often stand guard rather than brood. The nestling is semi-altricial, it is helpless when born but is covered in downy feathers, Its eyes are open at birth. The nestling is feed regurgitate food. It’s fed directly from the parent’s beak, but as it get older, the parents regurgitate the food onto the ground for it to eat. The nestling develops quickly and is fully alert by its second day and is able to beg and wriggle around the nest and by the third day is able to  preen it selves and peck. The nestling start to grow its second coat of white down after 10 day and stand on its toes by day 20. From one to three months of age, the nestling can walk around and explore the vicinity of the nest, and take its first flight at about three months of age. It remains dependent on its parents for eight months and may stay close for another two years. When it is three to four years old, it has developed all of its feathers, plumage, and features.

The role of the King Vulture (like other vultures) is very important. By disposing of rotting and decomposing remains, it help prevent the spread of disease in its environment. Although currently listed as a species “of least concern” by the IUCN, King Vultures are decreasing in numbers, due primarily to habitat loss and the capture of live birds, sold to zoological gardens around the world. It is not significant enough to cause a change in it’s current listing on the IUCN. (Yet)             

Photos of the King Vulture were taken at Parque das Aves - Foz do Iguacu - Parana.

English             -               Tropical Kingbird

Portuguese      -               Suiriri

Latin                 -                Tyrannus melancholicus

The Tropical Kingbird is a large Tyrant flycatcher (Tyrannidae) and one of the most widespread birds of the American tropics.                                

The Tropical Kingbird has a pale grey head, with a darker eye mask, an orange / red crown stripe, (which is normally hidden) and a dark grey bill. The back is grayish-green, and the wing and forked tail are brown. The throat is pale gray, becoming olive on the breast, with the rest of the underparts being yellow. The sexes are similar, but young birds have pale buff edges on the wing coverts. Adults are around 23 cm in length and weigh about 43 grams with a wingspan of 41 cm. The call is a high-pitched twittering trill, tree-e-e-e-e-e-e, with a more complex version sung by the male at dawn.           

The Tropical Kingbird breeds from southern Arizona and the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the USA through Central America, South America as far as south as central Argentina and western Peru, and on Trinidad and Tobago. Birds from the northernmost and southern breeding areas migrate to warmer parts of the range after breeding. They are found in lowlands near water, in open country with scattered trees and also in urban areas.

Tropical Kingbirds are primarily insectivore. They like to observe their surroundings from a prominent open perch, usually high in a tree, undertaking long sally flights to acrobatically catch insects in mid air. Their diet include beetles, flies, bees, wasps and grasshoppers. They sometimes hover to pick food off vegetation or if need be, will take prey from the ground. They also like to eat some fruits and berries.

Tropical Kingbirds aggressively defend their territory against much larger intruders such as magnificent frigate birds, toucans, caracaras or hawks. They breed in habitats that are semi-open with trees and shrubs, including gardens and roadsides.  The nest is built by the female and is a flimsy shallow cup of twigs, grasses, stems, bark, plant fibres, lined with plant down, moss and other fine materials. The nest is placed on a horizontal branch or in a fork of a tree. The female incubates a clutch of two or four cream eggs, which are marked with reddish-brown spots for 16 days, After hatching the nestling are fed by both the male and female. If the female leaves the nest the male will stick close by to defend it. The nestlings will fledge after 18-19 days but the parents will continue to feed them for a further 2 weeks. The nestlings will be fully independent after 33 days. Tropical Kingbirds have only one brood per season.                     

The Tropical Kingbird is classified as a species ”of least concerned”. Their numbers in the US have been reported to have increase slightly and farther south, they have become much more abundant and widespread as tropical forests have been cleared and turned into open country. Widespread, common and adaptable, the Tropical Kingbird is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN.(International Union for Conservation of Nature)

Photo # 1 - Taken at Praia da Costa - Vila Velha - Espirito Santo

Photo # 2 - Taken at Parque Tingui - Curitiba - Parana