Tropical Kingbird

Tyrannus melancholicus

The tropical kingbird is a large tyrant flycatcher. This bird breeds from southern Arizona and the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States through Central America, South America as far as south as central Argentina and eastern Peru, and on Trinidad and Tobago. Birds from the northernmost and southern breeding areas migrate to warmer parts of the range after breeding. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 183,788 times across 38 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 26°C (typically 24 to 30°C, from 15 areas). That holds across 75° of latitude, which suggests its timing follows temperature more than the calendar.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in South America ranged from 18°S in March to 7°N in April, about 2,700 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.