Great Kiskadee

The Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus, is a passerine bird. It is a large tyrant flycatcher; sometimes its genus Pitangus is considered monotypic,... more

by Teresa Zieba

Title

Great Kiskadee

Artist

Teresa Zieba

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

The Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus, is a passerine bird. It is a large tyrant flycatcher; sometimes its genus Pitangus is considered monotypic, with the Lesser Kiskadee (P. lictor) separated in Philohydor.

It breeds in open woodland with some tall trees, including cultivation and around human habitation, from southern Texas and Mexico south to Uruguay and central Argentina, and on Trinidad. It was introduced to Bermuda in 1957, and to Tobago in about 1970.

Adult Great Kiskadees are 22 cm (8.7 in) long and weigh 63 g (2.2 oz). The head is black with a strong white eyestripe and a concealed yellow crown stripe. The upperparts are brown, and the wings and tail are brown with usually strong rufous fringes.

The black bill is short and thick. The similar Boat-billed Flycatcher (Megarynchus pitangua) has a massive black bill, an olive-brown back and very little rufous in the tail and wings. A few other tyrant flycatchers � some not very closely related � share a similar color pattern, but these species are markedly smaller.

The call is an exuberant BEE-tee-WEE, and the bird has an onomatopoeic name in different languages and countries: in Spanish-speaking countries it is often bien-te-veo (�I see you well!�)
The Great Kiskadee is a common, noisy and conspicuous bird. It is almost omnivorous, and hunts like a shrike or flycatcher, waiting on an open perch high in a tree to sally out to catch insects in flight, or to pounce upon rodents and similar small vertebrates. It will also take prey and some fruit from vegetation by gleaning and jumping for it or ripping it off in mid-hover, and occasionally dives for fish or tadpoles in shallow water, making it one of the few fishing passerines.

Photographed in Akumal, Mexico.

Uploaded

January 11th, 2012