With a contrasting yellow belly and black-masked head, this strongly marked, raucous flycatcher looks startlingly bright.
The great kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus), also known as bem-te-vi in Brazil, is a passerine bird belonging to the Tyrannidae family of tyrant flycatchers. Kiskadees are 22cm long and 63g in weight. The head is black with a prominent white eyestripe and a yellow crown stripe that is hidden. The upper body is brown, and the wings and tail are also brown, with rufous fringes. Short and thick, the black bill.
The Boat-billed Flycatcher has a huge black beak, an olive-brown back, and very little rufous in the tail and wings, as does the similar Boat-billed Flycatcher.
It can be found primarily in Belize, as well as the Lower Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas and northern Mexico. It can be found all across Brazil and Venezuela (particularly in the central and south-southeastern districts), as well as in Argentina and Uruguay, Paraguay and central Argentina, the coast of Guyana, and Trinidad. It first appeared in Bermuda in 1957, and then in Tobago in 1970.
The great kiskadee prefers wide woods with towering trees, as well as cultivation and areas where humans live.
They hunt like shrikes or flycatchers, sallying out from an open perch high in the tree to catch insects on the wing or descending on rodents or other small prey. They’ll also eat some fruit and dive for fish in shallow water on occasion (making them one of the few fish-eating passerines). Because of their opportunistic feeding habits, they are one of the most prevalent birds in Latin American cities.
