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Great Kiskadee: Unconventional Flycatcher
A songbird tough enough to take on monkeys and falcons
© Egon Fink
An unusual flycatcher called the Great Kiskadee takes on much bigger opponents, sometimes even riding on the back of a falcon for a few seconds to drive them off. Chunky and robin-sized, kiskadees live along wooded edges near water all the way from South Texas to Argentina. They’re a familiar sight around rural towns and villages.
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BirdNote®
Great Kiskadee: Unconventional Flycatcher
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
Not just any songbird can take on a monkey or a falcon. But an unusual flycatcher called the Great Kiskadee faces these predators head-on, sometimes even riding on the back of a falcon for a few seconds to drive them off.
[Great Kiskadee call, ML 7880, 0:28-0:34]
Bright yellow below with a brown back, the kiskadee’s head is boldly striped in black and white. Its call announces its name.
[Great Kiskadee call, ML 7880]
From a perch above a stream, the kiskadee swoops low over the water, deftly grabbing a minnow with its bill.
[Great Kiskadee call, ML 216457, 0:46-0:49]
Of the hundreds of species of flycatchers, most mainly eat insects. The Great Kiskadee eats insects too, but has adapted to a broader diet that includes lizards, snakes, and fruit. If you feed your dog outside, it will even help itself to their food.
[Great Kiskadee call, ML 7880]
Chunky and robin-sized, kiskadees live along wooded edges near water all the way from South Texas to Argentina. They’re a familiar sight around rural towns and villages.
[Great Kiskadee call, ML 216457]
Other species of birds may even choose to nest in the same tree with a pair of kiskadees, to benefit from the bold defensive behavior of this unconventional flycatcher.
[Great Kiskadee call, ML 7880]
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Great Kiskadee ML 7880 recorded by P. Schwartz and Great Kiskadee ML 216457 recorded by N. Areta.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2023 BirdNote August 2023 Narrator: Michael Stein
GRKI-01-2023-08-03 GRKI-01
Reference: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Kiskadee/lifehistory
https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/grekis/cur/introduction
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Michael Stein
NarratorSights & Sounds
