Gray Kingbird

Gray Kingbird

Gray Kingbird: Large flycatcher with gray upperparts, black mask, inconspicuous red crown patch, and mostly white underparts with pale yellow wash on belly and undertail coverts. Bill is long and black. Wings and notched tail are dark. Fluttering direct flight on shallow wing beats.

● Song: "trii-ill-ill-it", "peCheer-ry"

● Foraging & Feeding: Gray Kingbird: Catches flying insects low over water surface; sometimes catches food on the ground or in foliage. Sometimes hovers briefly when foraging for insects, fruits, berries, and small lizards.

● Breeding & nesting: Gray Kingbird: Three to five pink to buff eggs with brown, lavender, and gray marks are laid in a flimsy cup nest made of grass, twigs, and roots, and built on a horizontal branch 4 to 50 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 16 to 18 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Gray Kingbird: Eastern Kingbird has a smaller bill, rounded black tail with white terminal band, black head without mask, white underparts with gray wash across breast, and different voice.

Flight Pattern