Thick-billed Kingbird

The thick-billed kingbird is about 25 cm (9.8 in) long and weighs about 52 to 59 g (1.8 to 2.1 oz). Females are slightly smaller than males and the sexes have essentially the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a dark grayish brown forehead, crown, lores, and ear coverts; their cheeks are white. The crown feathers form a slight crest. Both sexes have a partially hidden lemon or canary yellow patch in the center of the crown though females' are narrower. Both sexes have a grayish brown nape that is paler than the rest of the head. Their upperparts are mostly grayish olive with grayish brown uppertail coverts. Their wings are mostly deep grayish brown with pale grayish olive lesser coverts. Their remiges have thin pale buffy brown or cinnamon edges on their upper side and thin yellowish white edges on the inner webs on the underside. Their tail is deep grayish brown with pale buffy brown or cinnamon edges on the feathers. Their chin and throat are white, their breast whitish to very pale gray, and their sides, flanks, and undertail coverts very pale canary to deep primrose yellow. Subspecies T. c. pompalis is described as having less olive upperparts and paler yellow underparts than the nominate, but these differences have also been attributed to feather wear. Both subspecies have a dark iris, a stout dark bill, and blackish legs and feet.

Subspecies T. c. pompalis of the thick-billed kingbird is the more northerly of the two. It is found in the U.S. in extreme southeastern Arizona and extreme southwestern New Mexico and south from there on the Pacific side of Mexico to Colima. There are a few nesting records from the Big Bend region of southern Texas. The subspecies has also strayed further north in Arizona and to British Colombia, California, Colorado, and Baja California. The nominate subspecies is found on the western side of Mexico from Colima south to Chiapas and occasionally occurs in western Guatemala. The thick-billed kingbird inhabits different landscapes in different parts of its range. In the U.S. it breeds along streams and rivers with somewhat open floodplains rather than in narrow canyons. Further south it is found within tropical deciduous forest and less frequently in riparian zones and in the far south it is found in riparian zones within arid scrublands. In elevation it ranges as high as 2,000 m (6,600 ft).

The thick-billed kingbird feeds on insects, other arthropods, and to a smaller degree fruits, though details are lacking. It catches prey in mid-air with sallies from a high perch ("hawking").