All species › Passerines › Tyrant flycatchers and allies › Thick-billed Kingbird
Position in the tree Birds Aves › Birds with a flexible palate Neognathae › All other modern birds Neoaves › Landbirds Telluraves › Falcons, parrots and passerines Australaves › Falcons and passerines Eufalconimorphae › Parrots and passerines Psittacopasserae
Thick-billed Kingbird | Tyrannus crassirostris
Diksnavelkoningstiran | Tirano pico grueso
The Thick-billed Kingbird is a large, dark kingbird of western Mexico with a strikingly heavy, broad black bill. It usually perches high and in the open on a bare branch above a river, a dry wash or dry forest. In the guide area it lives on the Pacific slope of Mexico, from Sonora to Chiapas.
Voice
A loud, hoarse, somewhat rolling kiterreer and a harsh, raw pweeer; calls much from a high perch, especially in the morning.
Recording: Jules Evens — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
23–24 cm, with a large head and a very thick, broad black bill. Head dark greyish-brown, with an even darker mask through the eye and a concealed yellow crown patch. Back dark olive-brown, wings and tail dark brown; the tail is square or slightly notched and has no white edges. Throat white, breast whitish with a grey wash, belly pale yellow; young birds have a brighter yellow belly. Male and female are alike.
Confusion species
Tropical Kingbird Tyrannus melancholicus and Couch's Kingbird Tyrannus couchii have a paler grey head, an olive-green back, a yellow breast and a slimmer bill. Cassin's Kingbird Tyrannus vociferans has a dark grey breast with a sharply defined white chin, a yellower belly and a pale tail tip. Western Kingbird Tyrannus verticalis has a pale grey head and white outer edges to the black tail.
Habitat
Riparian woodland with tall trees along rivers and dry washes, tropical dry forest, thorn forest, mangrove edges and open country with scattered tall trees, mainly in the lowlands and foothills. It catches large insects in flight from a high, open perch and also eats fruit. The nest is a loose cup high in a tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Pacific slope of Mexico, from Sonora and south-western Chihuahua south to Chiapas, also inland in the Balsas basin. Outside the guide area a scarce breeding bird in south-eastern Arizona and south-western New Mexico.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
It often sits for hours on the same bare branch above a riverbed. The heavy bill and dark head are then visible from afar; the Tropical Kingbird, often perched nearby, has a paler head and a yellower breast.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Fairly common in suitable habitat on the Pacific slope of Mexico.
Scientific name
Tyrannus crassirostris | Swainson, 1826
Swainson described the species in 1826 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. 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. crassirostris is Latin, from crassus 'thick' and rostrum 'bill', after the notably heavy bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico.