Cassin's Kingbird

Overview

Cassin's Kingbird: Large flycatcher, dark olive-gray upperparts, dull yellow underparts. Mask is dark gray, throat is white and breast is gray. Tail is black with gray or white tip. Black bill, legs and feet. Bouyant fluttering flight with shallow wing beats. Hovers to take insects, berries, fruit.

Range and Habitat

Cassin's Kingbird: Breeds in southern California and from Montana south to southern Utah. Spends winters in southern California. Preferred habitats include savannas, rangelands, and pinyon-juniper woodlands.

INTERESTING FACTS

In early spring pairs begin a peculiar dance, hovering in unison with outstretched wings and high-pitched calls over a favorite perch. This dance occurs several times a day over several days, over separate sites in an area covering two or three acres. The sites chosen for the dance appear to be the same sites used as hunting perches during the spring and summer.
The Cassin's Kingbird was named after John Cassin, who was a curator at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.
They are often found high on a tree, where they sit more quietly than a Western Kingbird.
A group of kingbirds are collectively known as a "coronation", "court", and "tyranny" of kingbirds.

The Cassin's Kingbird, a terrestrial bird, is native to Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Canada, Belize and the United States. The range of Cassin's Kingbird is around 1.5 million square kilometers. Cassin's Kingbird currently has a population of more than 4 million individual birds. Currently, Cassin's Kingbird has a rating of Least Concern due to no evidence that the population of this bird has declined over the past several years. This is downgraded from a previous rating of Lower Risk.