In the Air: Birds

Gray kingbird

Tyrannus dominicensis

Jumplinks:

About

Gray kingbirds are skilled aviators and voracious insectivores that help to keep insect populations in check across Saba. They can even go toe-to-toe with capable fliers like wasps and dragonflies, chasing them down and plucking them out of the air. Kingbirds will bring those catches back to their perch before stripping them of any wings and stingers, making them easy to eat.

Their bug-catching talents have made them popular among Sabans, especially gardeners, and though some populations migrate, Saba’s gray kingbirds are year-round residents. They build their bowl-shaped nests out of twigs and mosses in trees and the nooks of human structures.

With a long, broad bill, a sleek monochrome look, and a loud rolling call, this species looks unlike all other birds on Saba. The dark-gray mask that extends across their face and onto their cheek, as well as the notched tail, are characteristic of gray kingbirds. To see one for yourself, look up to rooftops and telephone wires. As visual hunters, these birds tend to sit high up on perches that provide a broad range of sight.

To supplement their diet, gray kingbirds occasionally eat berries, or even lizards and other small vertebrates. Like other species of kingbirds, they can often be observed diving off their perch, snapping up an insect, and returning to their perch multiple times in quick succession, a behavior known as “sallying.” At night they’ll gather in large numbers to roost, a tactic that helps to protect them from potential predators.

Header image by @yellobird (CC-BY-NC).

This species is:
Native

Why that matters:
Native species are those that evolved in the region naturally, without human influence. That means they’re specifically adapted to Saba’s habitat, and play a key role in island biodiversity. When we lose native species, gaps appear in the ecosystem. That leads to cascades of additional extinctions, and to the loss of the ecosystem services (food, clean air and water, flood and coastal protections, and more) that we humans rely on.

Credit: @zahnerphoto, iNaturalist (CC-BY-NC).

iNaturalist Observations

Gray kingbird

iNaturalist user @erikvdwoude (CC-BY-NC)

iNaturalist user @reefguard (CC-BY-NC)

iNaturalist user @darfio (CC-BY-NC)

Where locals, researchers, and visitors have seen this species.

Saba Island Map and Pins: iNat Taxonomy ID 16798

This map shows geotagged observations of this species made on iNaturalist, the world’s largest community-science platform.

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Observations of land species in water:
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Missing observations:
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Ask a Scientist

Question: How do you get close enough to birds to study them?

Answer: To survey birds we use mist nets. They’re kind of like fishing nets but they have very fine, dark string that’s almost impossible to see in the forest. The birds, as they’re flying through the forest, go into these nets and then we can carefully handle them. We can take them out, get the blood samples and measurements necessary for the work that we do, then release them.

Dr. Jack Dumbacher
Curator of Ornithology & Mammalogy, California Academy of Sciences