Kingbird

For other uses, see Kingbird (disambiguation).

"Tyrannus" redirects here. For other uses, see Tyrannus (disambiguation).

Kingbirds
Eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Tyrannus Lacépède, 1799
Type species
Lanius tyrannus Linnaeus, 1758
Species
See text.

Tyrannus is a genus of small passerine birds of the tyrant flycatcher family. The majority are named as kingbirds.

They prefer semi-open or open areas. These birds wait on an exposed perch and then catch insects in flight. They have long pointed wings and large broad bills. These birds tend to defend their breeding territories aggressively, often chasing away much larger birds. A kingbird was photographed in 2009 defending its young by landing on and sinking its talons into the back of a red-tailed hawk and pecking its skull until the red-tailed hawk gave up and flew away.

The genus was introduced in 1799 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède with the eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) as the type species. The genus name is the Latin word for 'tyrant'.

Species

The genus contains 13 species:

Image	Common Name	Scientific name	Distribution
	Snowy-throated kingbird	Tyrannus niveigularis	Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
	White-throated kingbird	Tyrannus albogularis	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, and in the Guianas of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana
	Tropical kingbird	Tyrannus melancholicus	Southern Arizona and the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States through Central America, South America as far south as central Argentina and western Peru, and on Trinidad and Tobago
	Couch's kingbird	Tyrannus couchii	Southern Texas along the Gulf Coast to the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, Belize and northern Guatemala.
	Cassin's kingbird	Tyrannus vociferans	California and from Montana to Utah, along the eastern Rocky Mountains, and northern Central America
	Thick-billed kingbird	Tyrannus crassirostris	Southeastern Arizona, extreme southwestern New Mexico, and northern Sonora, (the Madrean sky islands), in the United States and Mexico, through western and western-coastal Mexico, south to western Guatemala.
	Western kingbird	Tyrannus verticalis	Florida and the Pacific coast of southern Mexico and Central America.
	Scissor-tailed flycatcher	Tyrannus forficatus	Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas; western portions of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri; far eastern New Mexico; and northeastern Mexico
	Fork-tailed flycatcher	Tyrannus savana	Central Mexico to central Argentina
	Eastern kingbird	Tyrannus tyrannus	Open areas across North America
	Gray kingbird	Tyrannus dominicensis	United States, mainly in Florida, through Central America, from Cuba to Puerto Rico as well as eastward towards all across the Lesser West Indies, south to Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, the Guiana, and Colombia.
	Giant kingbird	Tyrannus cubensis	Cuba
	Loggerhead kingbird	Tyrannus caudifasciatus	The Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and, very rarely, in the United States.