Gray Kingbird

About the Gray Kingbird

The Gray Kingbird is the Caribbean's kingbird - a big, pale, big-billed flycatcher, clean gray above and white below with a dark mask through the eye, and none of the yellow of the familiar Couch's and Western Kingbirds. The oversized black bill and the mask give it a tough, front-heavy look.

It behaves like kingbirds everywhere, only more so: sallying from exposed wires and treetops for large flying insects, occasionally grabbing small lizards and berries, and fearlessly hammering hawks, crows, and anything else that crosses its airspace. The call is a rolling, electric "pe-cheer-ry" that gives the species its Caribbean nickname, "pitirre".

Gray Kingbirds breed through the West Indies and along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida, favoring mangroves and open coastal woodlands, and most withdraw to South America for the winter.

In Texas the Gray Kingbird is a rare but nearly annual stray, with records scattered along the coast - typically a single bird on a wire near the beach, picked out by its pale colorlessness among the yellow-bellied local kingbirds. Coastal migrant traps in spring and fall are where most turn up, and every record still draws a small pilgrimage.