Cada Guaraguao Tiene Su Pitirre

Pitirre. Puerto Rico. Fledgling Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis) by Silvia Colón on Flickr.

The gray kingbird or grey kingbird, also known as pitirre, petchary, or white-breasted kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis) is a passerine bird in the Tyrannidae Family. It breeds from the extreme southeast of the United States, mainly in Florida, through Central America, from Cuba to Puerto Rico as well as eastward towards all across the Lesser West Indies, south to Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, the Guiana, and Colombia. Northern populations are migratory, wintering on the Caribbean coast of Central America and northern South America. Several vagrant populations are known to exist in the American Northeast. The species was first described on the island of Hispaniola, then called Santo Domingo, thus the dominicensis name.

 The call is a loud rolling trill, pipiri pipiri, which is the reason behind many of its local names, like pestigre or pitirre, in the Spanish-speaking Greater Antilles, or petchary in some of the English-speaking zones.

Gray Kingbird or Pitirre and Chinese Hibiscus, China Rose, Hawaiian Hibiscus, or Shoe Flower? Tyrannus dominicensis / Hibiscus rosa-sinensis