Eastern Kingbird
Learn to identify the Eastern Kingbird by ear. Master the "tzee-tzee-tsee-kit-tzee" phrase and tell it apart from similar species.
What the Eastern Kingbird sounds like
The Eastern Kingbird is a medium-sized flycatcher best known for its no-nonsense attitude toward much larger birds. Cloaked in a smart charcoal-black jacket and crisp white underparts, it flashes a narrow white tail-tip in flight. This contrast, along with its upright stance on exposed perches, makes the species easy to pick out in open country throughout eastern and central North America during summer.
“tzee-tzee-tsee-kit-tzee”
How to tell it apart
Lessons featuring the Eastern Kingbird
Ready to test your ear? Practice identifying the Eastern Kingbird's sounds in this interactive in-app lesson.
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Where you'll hear it
Favors open habitats with scattered trees or shrubs such as pastures, hayfields, orchards, fencerows, forest edges, wetlands, river corridors, and beaver ponds. Always requires prominent perches from which to sally after flying insects.
Arrives on breeding grounds April–May; nests May–July; gathers in loose flocks for southbound migration August–September; on wintering grounds October–March often forms mixed-species foraging flocks high in the canopy.
Similar species
Western Kingbird
Western Kingbird is pale gray with lemon-yellow belly, lacking white tail tip; tail dark with white outer webbing.
Gray Kingbird
Larger, heavier bill; pale gray underparts (not white); tail entirely dark with no white band.
Eastern Phoebe
Smaller, slimmer bird; constantly pumps tail; duskier breast wash; lacks white tail tip.