Trinidad-Tobago: Tropical Kingbird

The Tropical Kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus, is one of the 11 Kingbirds in the Tyrannus genus, and perhaps the most commonly seen of all, with a range from southern Texas and Arizona extending south to include most of Central and South America. We saw this one on a post in the Aripo Savannah in Trinidad, but it also occurs on Tobago. The subspecies seen in T-T is the same that we see in the U.S., including a few in the Bay Area along the coast every winter. It T. m. satropa. Despite the wide range of the species only 3 subspecies are recognized.


The Tropical Kingbird is seen so often in Costa Rica that the guides simply called out "Tee-Kay", if they bothered to even note it. Guess we do the same with our "Tee-Vee" for the Turkey Vulture.

Bird seen here quite backlit, but we can still appreciate the gray head with a vague black "mask" on the face. The long bill helps tell it from some of other yellow-bellied Kingbirds, like our, Couch's, Cassin's and Western Kingbirds. The shadowed underparts allow us to see the olive-yellow color of the upper breast.