Endangered
Giant Kingbird
Tyrannus cubensis
Giant Kingbird is a perching bird in the family Tyrannidae (order Passeriformes) — Tyrannus cubensis, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
The sexes have the same plumage. Adults have a mostly blackish to black head with white cheeks and a partially hidden deep orange or red patch in the center of the crown. Often they have some white on the lores that extends to the forehead.
It is 23 to 26 cm (9.1 to 10 in) long and weighs about 94 g (3.3 oz) with a maximum weight of about 108 g (3.8 oz).
Published measurements include mass about 94.
Range and habitat
The giant kingbird is found only on Cuba, where it has a highly disjunct distribution. There it is found along the northwestern coast, the southeastern coast, a few locations in the interior, and on Isla de la Juventud (the "Isle of Pines"). It formerly was found on Great Inagua and the Caicos Islands where it was last documented in 1891.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The giant kingbird feeds primarily on large insects and also includes small vertebrates and fruit in its diet. It usually forages singly or in pairs, perching on an exposed branch in a tall tree.
It breeds between March and June. Its nest is an unlined cup made from small twigs, roots, and dried grass and is typically placed in a branch fork between about 13 and 22 m (45 and 70 ft) above the ground.
In crisis
Giant Kingbird is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Giant Kingbird, Wikidata item Q648026. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
