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