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Giant kingbird
Conservation status
	; Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Tyrannus
Species:	T. cubensis
Binomial name
	Tyrannus cubensis; Richmond, 1898

The giant kingbird (Tyrannus cubensis) is a species of bird in the tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae endemic to Cuba.

Taxonomy

The species is probably mostly closely related to the loggerhead kingbird, which also occurs in Cuba as well as several other nearby Caribbean islands.^[2]

Description

While this species has been reported in the past to average only 23 cm (9 in) long,^[3] this may be excessively conservative with the overall length being 23 to 26 cm (9.1 to 10.2 in).^[4] Although it is not the largest tyrant flycatcher, its body mass as reported is significantly higher than the next largest known kingbird, the thick-billed kingbird, with an average of 93.6 g (3.30 oz), sometimes scaling up to 108 g (3.8 oz), meaning it can be nearly as heavy as the largest tyrant flycatcher, the great shrike tyrant.^[5]

Distribution and habitat

T. cubensis is endemic to Cuba, but is considered extirpated from the Turks and Caicos Islands and The Bahamas. Vagrant individuals have been sighted in Mexico and Hispaniola (Haiti). The giant kingbird is found in tall lowland forest. In particular, it favors pine forests and the wooded borders of waterways. It is also found in mixed pine barrens, open woodlands, swamps and savanna. It has also been seen in cloud forest.^[2]

It is threatened by habitat loss.

References

^ BirdLife International (2020). "Tyrannus cubensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T22700516A179476365. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22700516A179476365.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
^ ^a ^b Mobley, Jason A. (2004), "Family Tyrannidae (tyrant flycatchers)", in del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew; Christie, David (eds.), Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 9, Cotingas to Pipits and Wagtails, Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, pp. 424, ISBN 84-87334-69-5
^ "Giant Kingbird (Tyrannus cubensis) - BirdLife species factsheet". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2011-02-25.
^ Mobley, J. A. and C. J. Sharpe (2020). Giant Kingbird (Tyrannus cubensis), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.
^ Dunning, John B. Jr., ed. (2008). CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses (2nd ed.). CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4200-6444-5.