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Grey Kingbird | Tyrannus dominicensis
Grijze koningstiran | Tirano gris
The Grey Kingbird often perches in the open in the Caribbean, on power lines, aerials and bare branches along roads, beaches and villages. Its call has given it names such as pitirre and petchary in the region. Northern populations move south in winter; the Lesser Antilles are home to the subspecies vorax.
Voice
A loud, rolling pi-tirr-ri or pipiri, often repeated and heard especially at dawn and during chases. Also short, sharp chattering calls.
Recording: Rory Nefdt — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
23–24 cm, with a large head, a long, heavy, straight bill and a fairly long, notched tail. Upperparts grey, wings and tail dark grey-brown. A blackish mask runs from the bill through the eye to the ear coverts. Underparts white, the breast washed grey; sometimes a hint of yellow on the lower belly or undertail. A yellow crown patch is usually concealed. The tail has no white tip or white outer edges. Juveniles are browner above, with rufous edges to the wing coverts, rump and tail. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Loggerhead Kingbird Tyrannus caudifasciatus has a dark, almost black cap without a contrasting mask, an olive-brown back and usually a pale tail band. Eastern Kingbird Tyrannus tyrannus is blackish above with a white tail tip and a shorter bill. Tropical Kingbird Tyrannus melancholicus has a yellow belly and breast and an olive-green back. Giant Kingbird Tyrannus cubensis is larger, with a much heavier bill and white cheeks below a black cap.
Habitat
Open country with scattered trees: gardens, villages and towns, pasture, plantations, coastal vegetation, mangroves, forest edges and savanna. It hunts flying insects from a high, open perch and also eats fruit. It defends its territory fiercely, even against much larger birds such as raptors and crows. The nest is a loose cup of twigs in a tree, a mangrove or on a man-made structure.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
Breeds in the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Lesser Antilles, the ABC Islands, San Andrés and Trinidad and Tobago. In Cuba and the Bahamas present mainly from March to October; birds from Florida also pass through the region. Outside the region it breeds in Florida and along the Caribbean coast of Colombia and Venezuela; northern birds winter in northern South America.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Seen almost anywhere with wires or isolated trees beside open ground, including hotels and airports. Rare in winter in Cuba and the Bahamas; a Grey Kingbird there in December or January deserves a second look at the face mask and tail to rule out Loggerhead Kingbird.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species has a large range, is common on most islands and benefits from open, man-made landscapes.
Scientific name
Tyrannus dominicensis | (Gmelin, 1788)
Gmelin described the species in 1788 as [Lanius Tyrannus] dominicensis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Tyrannus was introduced in 1799 by De Lacépède. Tyrannus is Latin (from Greek turannos) for 'tyrant, despot', after the aggressive way these birds drive off even raptors. dominicensis means 'of Santo Domingo', the old name for Hispaniola, where the species was collected. The specimen the first description was based on came from Santo Domingo (Hispaniola).