Tyrannus dominicensis
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The gray kingbird or grey kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis), also known as pitirre, petchary or white-breasted kingbird, is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatchers family Tyrannidae. The species was first described on the island of Hispaniola, then called Santo Domingo, thus the dominicensis name.
The gray kingbird was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the shrikes in the genus Lanius and coined the binomial name Lanius dominicensis. The specific epithet is from the locality Santo Domingo, now Hispaniola. Gmelin based his description on "Le tyran de S. Domingue" that had been described and illustrated in 1760 by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson. The gray kingbird is now one of 13 species placed in the kingbird genus Tyrannus that was introduced in 1799 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède. A molecular genetic study published in 2020 found that the gray kingbird was sister to the giant kingbird (Tyrannus cubensis).
Two subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Haitises National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Main Ridge Forest Reserve | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 3 | Jaragua National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 4 | Ciénaga de Zapata | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 5 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park | 🇯🇲 Jamaica | |
| 7 | Caroni Swamp | 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago | |
| 8 | Tayrona National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 9 | Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 10 | Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 11 | Bastimentos Island National Marine Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 12 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 14 | Palo Verde National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 15 | La Amistad International Park (Panama) | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 16 | Big Cypress National Preserve | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Parque Natural Metropolitano | 🇵🇦 Panama |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 3 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 4 | Maracaibo | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 5 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 9 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Gray Kingbird sighting in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 253rd most-seen of the 274 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Gray Kingbird in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Gray Kingbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
14th of 17
Of the 17 parks where we can rate Gray Kingbird sightings, Palo Verde National Park ranks 14th at under 5%. The best odds are in Los Haitises National Park (Dominican Republic, about 80%), Main Ridge Forest Reserve (Trinidad and Tobago, about 40%) and Jaragua National Park (Dominican Republic, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Tyrannus
The closest relatives of the Gray Kingbird that you can see in Palo Verde National Park (genus Tyrannus, Kingbirds) are Tropical Kingbird (about 60%) and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gray Kingbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Palo Verde National Park (9 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
