WatchList Species Account for Thick-billed Kingbird (Tyrannus crassirostris)

Qualifies for the list as a Rare Yellow List Species

Photo: © Michael G. Shepard

First recorded as a breeding species in the U.S. in southeastern Arizona in 1958, the Thick-billed Kingbird is now a fairly widely distributed but uncommon breeding bird in southern Arizona and extreme southwestern New Mexico. It nests high in trees and hawks for insects in open habitats. Little is known of the species; no studies have been made of its life history, but much of its biology probably resembles that of other kingbirds in its genus. In Mexico it is found in woodland and edge and semiopen areas, mostly in arid or semiarid areas. Nothing is known of its population trends in Mexico. It winters on the Pacific slope of Mexico south to the southern part of that country.