Another Southern Arizona Rarity

Introducing the Thick-billed Kingbird

Once described as "Arizona's loudest bird", the Thick-billed Kingbird is one of several other flycatchers and kingbirds that make southeastern Arizona their summer home. With a dark gray head that includes a black mask through the eye, its very thick bill separates it from the other kingbirds and flycatchers that we see at this time of year. The Thick-billed Kingbird has a white throat and breast and is yellow below.

Like most of the kingbirds and flycatchers we see during the summer breeding season, the Thick-billed Flycatcher is a Mexican species. The range map below from AllAboutBirds shows the small area of the United States where this bird can be found during the summer.

There are just a small number of Thick-billed Kingbirds in southern Arizona every summer, mostly in streams or rivers with cottonwoods or sycamore trees. They can be located by their loud calls, but they also conspicuously perch atop tall trees to scan for insects. A friend and I found this Kingbird in a remote canyon of the Santa Rita Mountains. As we watched, we saw it fly out from its perch and return with some kind of insect prey.

It turns out this Kingbird had caught a Carpenter Bee, a very large insect equipped with a stinger. Carpenter bees are shiny black, are about an inch long and rather robust. By catching the Carpenter Bee mid-flight, the Kingbird is less likely to provoke a stinging response from the bee.

Once it has captured the bee, the Kingbird worked on killing the bee by smashing the bee's head against the perch, and then rubbing off the stinger. We watched as the Kingbird prepped its meal.

After a minute or two of work, it tossed the bee into the air one last time......

...and then caught it mid-air and swallowed it whole.

A few moments later, the Thick-billed Kingbird flew to the top of its tree again and resumed its regular perch position.

You can find more about Thick-billed Kingbirds or any of southeastern Arizona's summering Flycatchers or Kingbirds by searching on the Cornell Lab’s AllAboutBirds site You can also look at some of my previous emails to get a brief look at the other southeastern Arizona's related Kingbirds and Flycatchers to see Tropical Kingbirds , Cassin's Kingbirds , Western Kingbirds or Brown-crested Flycatchers , and an Ash-throated Flycatcher.