Thick-billed Kingbird

About the Thick-billed Kingbird

A big, bold flycatcher with a heavy, oversized bill and a large head, the Thick-billed Kingbird is dusky gray-brown above and whitish below with a pale yellow wash to the belly and a mostly concealed patch of color in the crown. Upright and conspicuous, it perches in the open like other kingbirds and defends its territory aggressively.

Thick-billed Kingbirds sally out after large flying insects and give loud, sputtering calls from an exposed perch, often high in a streamside tree.

In Texas the Thick-billed Kingbird is a rare and local specialty, a Mexican species that reaches the wooded riparian corridors of the Big Bend region and the far west, drawing birders when one is found.

A note from behind the lens: their habit of perching high and in the open makes for clean flight and portrait chances once you locate one. Work the cottonwood-lined drainages where they occur, get an angle against open sky, and use the golden hours to warm that pale plumage.