Tyrannus crassirostris

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Perched high in a canyon tree , the bird spies an insect flying past. Suddenly aloft, it sails forth to capture its meal in the remoteness of Guadalupe Canyon. A large flycatcher, the thick-billed kingbird is 6 1/2 inches in length with brown upper parts, a white throat , a gray breast, and pale yellow under parts. This kingbird's call is a strident "pitcheery," which differs from the low "chibeer" of Cassin's kingbird and the high, thin twitterings of the Western kingbird.[1]

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Click on the language to view common names.

Description

Physical Description

Habitat

Thick-billed kingbirds inhabit thorn forests in western Mexico and Guatamala, but in the United States they are confined to riparian habitats .[1]

Vegetation: gallery forests, tropical deciduous forests • Maximum Elevation: 1,850 meters • Foraging Strata: Canopy • Center of Abundance: Upper tropical: higher slopes, 900-1,600 m.; tropics. • Sensitivity to Disturbance: Medium

Typically found in a lake at a mean distance from sea level of 937 meters (3,073 feet).[2]

Ecology: List of Habitats :

•     1     Forest   
  
•     1.5     Forest - Subtropical/Tropical Dry   
  
•     1.6     Forest - Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland   
  
•     2     Savanna   
  
•     2.1     Savanna - Dry   
  
•     3     Shrubland   
  
•     3.5     Shrubland - Subtropical/Tropical Dry   
  
•     5     Wetlands (inland)   
  
•     5.1     Wetlands (inland) - Permanent Rivers/Streams/Creeks (includes waterfalls )   
  
•     14     Artificial/Terrestrial   
  
•     14.3     Artificial/Terrestrial - Plantations   
  
•     14.6     Artificial/Terrestrial - Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest   
[more info]

Biology

Diet

Primarily: Insects

Reproduction

The nest is a frail cup of twigs and grasses placed from 35 to 50 feet above the ground . The eggs are whitish with dark brown spots, and the clutch size varies from three to five eggs.[1]

Nest Location: Mid-story/canopy nesting Nest Type: Open-cup

Migration

Short distance migrant

Behavior

The behavior of this bird is typical of other kingbirds and includes perching in the higher parts of trees and sailing out to capture insects on the wing . Thick-billed kingbirds are noisy and bickering, and they respond to predatory birds as fiercely as do other members of the flycatcher family .[1]

Taxonomy

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 29-Nov-2006

Similar Species

The Thick-billed Kingbird is somehat similar to other kingbirds but it has a darker head and a larger bill.

Members of the genus Tyrannus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 23 species and subspecies in this genus:

T. albogularis (White-Throated Kingbird) · T. caudifasciatus (Loggerhead Kingbird) · T. caudifasciatus caudifasciatus (Loggerhead Kingbird) · T. couchii (Thornscrub Kingbird) · T. crassirostris (Thick-Billed Kingbird) · T. crassirostris crassirostris (Thick-Billed Kingbird) · T. cubensis (Cuban Flycatcher) · T. dominicensis (Grey Kingbird) · T. dominicensis dominicensis (Gray Kingbird) · T. forficata (Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher) · T. forficatus (Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher) · T. melancholicus (Lichtenstein's Kingbird) · T. melancholicus chloronotus (Tropical Kingbird) · T. melancholicus couchi (Tropical Kingbird) · T. melancholicus melancholicus (Tropical Kingbird) · T. melancholicus occidentalis (Tropical Kingbird) · T. niveigularis (Snowy-Throated Kingbird) · T. savana (Swallow-Tailed Flycatcher) · T. savana savana (Fork-Tailed Flycatcher) · T. tyrannus (Tyrant Flycatcher) · T. verticalis (Arkansas Flycatcher) · T. vociferans (Cassin's Flycatcher) · T. vociferans vociferans (Cassin's Kingbird)

More Info

• Search for Pictures: images.google.com
• Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
• Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• A List of birds' eggs in the collection of Mr. William Stoate, Wembdon, Bridgewater. [188-?] url p. 108.
• A manual of North American birds. By Robert Ridgway. Illustrated by 464 outline drawings of the generic characters. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1887. url p. 329.
• A manual of North American birds. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1896. url , , p. 329.
• Biologia centrali-americana: Aves / [London: R.H. Porter], 1879-1904. url , .
• Birds of western and northwestern Mexico. Boston, Published by the Society, 1874. url .
• Bulletin - United States National Museum. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.];1877-1971. url , p. 686, p. 689, p. 7, p. 70, p. 712, p. 713.
• Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. New YorkAmerican Museum of Natural History1881- url p. 358, p. 425.
• Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College. 68 1928 Cambridge, Mass.: The Museum, 1863- url p. 396.
• Catalogue of birds of the Americas and the adjacent islands in Field Museum of Natural History. initiated by Charles B. Cory, continued by Charles E. Hellmayr. 13 1927 Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1927. url p. 102, p. 112.
• Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. London, 1874-98. url p. 271.
• Catalogue of the collection of birds' eggs in the British Museum (Natural History) London, Printed by order of the Trustees, 1901-12. url p. 214.
• Check-list of North American birds: the species of birds of North America from the Arctic through Panama, including the West Indies and Hawaiian Islands / prepared by the Committee on Classification and Nomenclature of the American Orni Lawrence, Kan.: American Ornithologists' Union, 1983. url p. 472, p. 804.
• Check-list of birds of the world. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931-1987. url p. 224.
• Ibis. [London]Published for the British Ornithologists' Union by Academic Press. url p. 439, p. 442.
• Memoirs of the San Diego Society of Natural History. 13 1984 San Diego, Calif.: The Society, 1931-1989. url map 51, page 135, p. 252.
• Notes on a collection of birds from Michoacan, Mexico, by Emmet R. Blake and Harold C. Hanson. 22 1942 [Chicago]1942. url p. 572.
• Pacific coast avifauna / Cooper Ornithnological Club of California. Santa Clara, Calif.: The Club, 1900-1974. url p. 48, p. 85.
• Proceedings of the International Ornithological Congress. [Canberra, etc.]Australian Academy of Science [etc.] url p. 473.
• Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 9 1886 Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, [etc.] url p. 155, p. 467, p. 472, p. 518.
• Smithsonian miscellaneous collections. 115 1951 Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1862-1968. url p. 344, p. 472, p. 475, p. 518.
• Syllogeus. Ottawa, National Museum of Natural Sciences, 1972-1995. url p. 23.
• Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History. 14 1966 [San Diego]: The Society, 1905-1989. url p. 163.
• Transactions of the. .. annual meetings of the Kansas Academy of Science. Topeka, Kan.: Kansas Pub. House, 1883-1901. url p. 221.

Notes

Contributors

• BirdLife International 2004. In IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCNRedList.org. Downloaded July 18, 2008.
• BirdLife International 2009. Tyrannus crassirostris. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 05February2012.
• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 and ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 9, 2012.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed March 04, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 5 providers.
• Hines, J. E., Gregory Gough, J. R. Sauer, et al. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
• IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.
• New Mexico Wildlife. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Version of April 24, 2009.
• Parker III, T.A., D.F. Stotz, and J.W. Fitzpatrick, and quot;Ecological and Distributional Databases for Neotropical Birds, and quot; in Neotropical Birds: Ecology and Conservation, by D.F. Stotz, T.A. Parker III, J.W. Fitzpatrick, and D.K. Moskovits (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). ISBN 0-226-64676-9.
• Peterson, Alan P. Zoological Nomenclature Resource. Accessed June 19, 2009.
• Ruggiero M., Gordon D., Bailly N., Kirk P., Nicolson D. (2011). The Catalogue of Life Taxonomic Classification, Edition 2, Part A. In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist (Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell T.M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D., eds). DVD; Species 2000: Reading, UK.
• Sauer, J. R., J. E. Hines, and J. Fallon. 2005. The North American Breeding Bird Survey, Results and Analysis 1966 - 2004. Version 2005.2. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD
• Sauer, J. R., S. Schwartz, and B. Hoover. 1996. The Christmas Bird Count Home Page. Version 95.1. USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 04, 2008:

• Avian Knowledge Network: eBird
• Avian Knowledge Network: Great Backyard Bird Count
• Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics
• Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility: Royal British Columbia Museum
• UNIBIO, IBUNAM: CNAV/Coleccion Nacional de Aves
• University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ): Bird specimens

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2593
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-712728
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 14659874
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 178292
• IUCN ID: 247871
• Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: ABPAE52040
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 13954

Footnotes

1. New Mexico Wildlife. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Version of April 24, 2009. [back]
2. Standard Deviation = 718.110 based on 461 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.