Great Kiskadee
Encyclopedia
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.
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!").
In page 62, Charles Darwin
calls it Saurophagus sulphureus. He says "The Saurophagus sulphureus is typical of the great American
tribe of Tyrant-flycatchers
. [...] In the evening the Saurophagus takes its stand on a bush
, often by the road-side, and continually repeats, without change, a shrill and rather agreeable cry, which somewhat resembles articulate words. The Spaniards say it is like the words, "Bien te veo "(I see you well), and accordingly have given it this name."
See it also in The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online
, and hunts like a shrike
or flycatcher, waiting on an open perch high in a tree to sally out
to catch insect
s in flight, or to pounce upon rodent
s and similar small vertebrate
s. 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 tadpole
s in shallow water, making it one of the few fishing passerine
s. They like to hunt on their own or in pairs, and though they might be expected to make good use of prey flushed by but too large for the smaller birds of the understory
, they do not seem to join mixed-species feeding flock
s very often. When they do, they hunt in the familiar manner. Such opportunistic feeding behavior makes it one of the commonest birds in urban areas
around Latin America
; its flashy belly and its shrill call make it one of the most conspicuous.
The nest
, built by both sexes in a tree
or telephone pole, is a ball of sticks with a side entrance. The typical clutch is two or three cream eggs
lightly blotched with reddish brown. They are incubated by the female.
This alert and aggressive bird has a strong and maneuverable flight, which it uses to good effect when it feels annoyed by raptors
. Even much larger birds are attacked by the Great Kiskadee, usually by diving down or zooming straight at them while they are in mid-air. Harsh calls are also often given during these attacks, alerting all potential prey in the area of the predator's presence. If not very hungry, any raptor subject to a Great Kiskadee's mobbing behavior
is likely to leave, as it is wellnigh impossible to make a good catch when subject to the tyrant flycatcher
's unwelcome attention. In general, avian predators are liable to steer clear of an alert Great Kiskadee, lest their hunting success be spoiled, and will hunt the Great Kiskadee itself – though it is as meaty as a fat thrush
– only opportunistically.
To mammal
ian and squamate
predators that can sneak up to nesting or sleeping birds, it is more vulnerable however. Even omnivorous
mammal
s as small as the Common Marmoset
(Callithrix jacchus) will try to plunder Great Kiskadee nests – at least during the dry season
when fruits are scarce – despite the birds' attempts to defend their offspring. One of two birds studied in the Parque Nacional de La Macarena of Colombia
was parasitized
by microfilaria
e.
The bright coloration of the Great Kiskadee makes it easy to recognize and as noted above, is shared by several other more or less closely related Tyrannidae
. It is not known whether this apparent convergent evolution
is a case of mimicry, and if so, whether the Great Kiskadee's pugnaciousness encourages some predators to leave birds with such colors well alone. Given that some Tyrannidae are alleged to taste bad, the color may also be an aposematic
warning of noxious chemicals contained in the birds' meat. In a peculiar coincidence, the Foxface Rabbitfish
(Siganus vulpinus) and related species have evolved a strikingly similar coloration
and pattern; here it is almost certain that the colors are aposematic, as these fishes use a poisonous sting
to defend themselves.
Not being appreciated as a songbird
, the Great Kiskadee is not usually kept caged and therefore has escaped the depredations of poaching
for the pet
trade. Also, its feeding mostly on live prey makes it extremely difficult to keep in captivity. It is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
. It is a large tyrant flycatcher
Tyrant flycatcher
The tyrant flycatchers are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds on Earth, with more than 400 species. They are the most diverse avian family in every country in the Americas, except for the United States and...
; sometimes its genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Pitangus is considered monotypic, with the Lesser Kiskadee
Lesser Kiskadee
The Lesser Kiskadee is a species of bird in the Tyrannidae family.It is found in Argentina, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Venezuela....
(P. lictor) separated in Philohydor.
It breeds in open woodland with some tall trees, including cultivation and around human habitation, from southern Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
south to Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
and central Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, and on Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
. It was introduced
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
to Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
in 1957, and to Tobago
Tobago
Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada. The island lies outside the hurricane belt...
in about 1970.
Description
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
Boat-billed Flycatcher
The Boat-billed Flycatcher is a passerine bird. It is a large tyrant flycatcher, the only member, monotypic, of the genus Megarynchus....
(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
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
-speaking countries it is often bien-te-veo ("I see you well!").
In page 62, Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
calls it Saurophagus sulphureus. He says "The Saurophagus sulphureus is typical of the great American
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
tribe of Tyrant-flycatchers
Tyrant flycatcher
The tyrant flycatchers are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds on Earth, with more than 400 species. They are the most diverse avian family in every country in the Americas, except for the United States and...
. [...] In the evening the Saurophagus takes its stand on a bush
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
, often by the road-side, and continually repeats, without change, a shrill and rather agreeable cry, which somewhat resembles articulate words. The Spaniards say it is like the words, "Bien te veo "(I see you well), and accordingly have given it this name."
See it also in The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online
Ecology
The Great Kiskadee is a common, noisy and conspicuous bird. It is almost omnivorousOmnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...
, and hunts like a shrike
Shrike
Shrikes are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of thirty-one species in three genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes were also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits...
or flycatcher, waiting on an open perch high in a tree to sally out
Hawking (birds)
Hawking is a feeding strategy in birds involving catching flying insects in the air. The term usually refers to a technique of sallying out from a perch to snatch an insect and then returning to the same or a different perch...
to catch insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s in flight, or to pounce upon rodent
Rodent
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s and similar small vertebrate
Vertebrate
Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...
s. It will also take prey and some fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
from vegetation by gleaning
Gleaning (birds)
Gleaning is a term for a feeding strategy by birds in which they catch invertebrate prey, mainly arthropods, by plucking them from foliage or the ground, from crevices such as rock faces and under the eaves of houses, or even, as in the case of ticks and lice, from living animals. This behavior is...
and jumping for it or ripping it off in mid-hover, and occasionally dives for fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
or tadpole
Tadpole
A tadpole or polliwog is the wholly aquatic larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian, particularly that of a frog or toad.- Appellation :...
s in shallow water, making it one of the few fishing passerine
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
s. They like to hunt on their own or in pairs, and though they might be expected to make good use of prey flushed by but too large for the smaller birds of the understory
Understory
Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...
, they do not seem to join mixed-species feeding flock
Mixed-species feeding flock
A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species, that join each other and move together while foraging...
s very often. When they do, they hunt in the familiar manner. Such opportunistic feeding behavior makes it one of the commonest birds in urban areas
Urban wildlife
Urban wildlife is wildlife that can live or thrive in urban environments. Some urban wildlife, such as house mice, are synanthropic, ecologically associated with humans. Different types of urban area support different kinds of wildlife...
around Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
; its flashy belly and its shrill call make it one of the most conspicuous.
The nest
Bird nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...
, built by both sexes in a tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
or telephone pole, is a ball of sticks with a side entrance. The typical clutch is two or three cream eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
lightly blotched with reddish brown. They are incubated by the female.
Bird of prey
Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....
. Even much larger birds are attacked by the Great Kiskadee, usually by diving down or zooming straight at them while they are in mid-air. Harsh calls are also often given during these attacks, alerting all potential prey in the area of the predator's presence. If not very hungry, any raptor subject to a Great Kiskadee's mobbing behavior
Mobbing behavior
Mobbing in animals is an antipredator behavior which occurs when individuals of a certain species mob a predator by cooperatively attacking or harassing it, usually to protect their offspring. A simple definition of mobbing is an assemblage of individuals around a potentially dangerous predator...
is likely to leave, as it is wellnigh impossible to make a good catch when subject to the tyrant flycatcher
Tyrant flycatcher
The tyrant flycatchers are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds on Earth, with more than 400 species. They are the most diverse avian family in every country in the Americas, except for the United States and...
's unwelcome attention. In general, avian predators are liable to steer clear of an alert Great Kiskadee, lest their hunting success be spoiled, and will hunt the Great Kiskadee itself – though it is as meaty as a fat thrush
Thrush (bird)
The thrushes, family Turdidae, are a group of passerine birds that occur worldwide.-Characteristics:Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feed on the ground or eat small fruit. The smallest thrush may be the Forest Rock-thrush, at and...
– only opportunistically.
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
ian and squamate
Squamata
Squamata, or the scaled reptiles, is the largest recent order of reptiles, including lizards and snakes. Members of the order are distinguished by their skins, which bear horny scales or shields. They also possess movable quadrate bones, making it possible to move the upper jaw relative to the...
predators that can sneak up to nesting or sleeping birds, it is more vulnerable however. Even omnivorous
Omnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...
mammal
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s as small as the Common Marmoset
Common Marmoset
The common marmoset is a New World monkey. It originally lived on the Northeastern coast of Brazil, in the states of Piaui, Paraiba, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Alagoas and Bahia...
(Callithrix jacchus) will try to plunder Great Kiskadee nests – at least during the dry season
Dry season
The dry season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year...
when fruits are scarce – despite the birds' attempts to defend their offspring. One of two birds studied in the Parque Nacional de La Macarena of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
was parasitized
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
by microfilaria
Microfilaria
The microfilaria is a stage in the life cycle of certain parasitic nematodes in the family Onchocercidae. In these species, the adults live in the circulatory system of vertebrates while the early larval stages develop in blood-feeding arthropod vectors...
e.
The bright coloration of the Great Kiskadee makes it easy to recognize and as noted above, is shared by several other more or less closely related Tyrannidae
Tyrant flycatcher
The tyrant flycatchers are a family of passerine birds which occur throughout North and South America. They are considered the largest family of birds on Earth, with more than 400 species. They are the most diverse avian family in every country in the Americas, except for the United States and...
. It is not known whether this apparent convergent evolution
Convergent evolution
Convergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages.The wing is a classic example of convergent evolution in action. Although their last common ancestor did not have wings, both birds and bats do, and are capable of powered flight. The wings are...
is a case of mimicry, and if so, whether the Great Kiskadee's pugnaciousness encourages some predators to leave birds with such colors well alone. Given that some Tyrannidae are alleged to taste bad, the color may also be an aposematic
Aposematism
Aposematism , perhaps most commonly known in the context of warning colouration, describes a family of antipredator adaptations where a warning signal is associated with the unprofitability of a prey item to potential predators...
warning of noxious chemicals contained in the birds' meat. In a peculiar coincidence, the Foxface Rabbitfish
Foxface Rabbitfish
The Foxface Rabbitfish is a popular saltwater aquarium fish. It belongs to the rabbitfish family and is sometimes still placed in the obsolete genus Lo. Other common names are "foxface" or "foxface Lo", but these properly refer to any of the rabbitfish species once separated in Lo, e.g...
(Siganus vulpinus) and related species have evolved a strikingly similar coloration
Animal colouration
Animal coloration is the general appearance of an animal resulting from the reflection or emission of light from its surfaces. The mechanisms for colour production in animals include pigments, chromatophores, structural coloration, and bioluminescence....
and pattern; here it is almost certain that the colors are aposematic, as these fishes use a poisonous sting
Stinger
-Biology:* Stinger, an organ or body part found in various animals that usually delivers some kind of venom.* Stinger , a minor neurological injury suffered by athletes.-Sports and entertainment:...
to defend themselves.
Not being appreciated as a songbird
Songbird
A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds . Another name that is sometimes seen as scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin oscen, "a songbird"...
, the Great Kiskadee is not usually kept caged and therefore has escaped the depredations of poaching
Poaching
Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...
for the pet
Pet
A pet is a household animal kept for companionship and a person's enjoyment, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful...
trade. Also, its feeding mostly on live prey makes it extremely difficult to keep in captivity. It is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
External links
- Bermuda Online: Bermudian Fauna.
- List of Mexican Birds from the Museo de las Aves
- Stamps (for ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, British HondurasBritish HondurasBritish Honduras was a British colony that is now the independent nation of Belize.First colonised by Spaniards in the 17th century, the territory on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, became a British crown colony from 1862 until 1964, when it became self-governing. Belize became...
-(BelizeBelizeBelize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
), GuyanaGuyanaGuyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, NicaraguaNicaraguaNicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, SurinameSurinameSuriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
, UruguayUruguayUruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
) - Great Kiskadee videos, photos & sounds on the Internet Bird Collection
- Great Kiskadee photo gallery VIREO