The Eastern Kingbird has a reputation for the fearless defense of his personal kingdom with aggressive stunts no matter what the odds seem to be. Little wonder that his scientific name is Tyrannus Tyrannus - like a character straight out of Shakespeare (or today’s newspaper). The Kingbird even has a red or orange crown hidden beneath his black cap that is brandished when he’s really upset.

A member of the flycatcher family, the Kingbird eats mostly insects and occasionally berries. They have even been known to eat small frogs - swallowing them whole after beating them to death against a perch. While highly territorial against their own kind during summer breeding, in winter they will head for the Amazon river basin where they live peacefully in flocks eating mostly berries.

Unlike most passerines (songbirds), Kingbirds don’t have a very complex song - mostly a repeated series of high-pitched whistles and buzzes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51s1bh6BAeU And what they have seems to be innate rather than learned since their young can produce the sounds within two weeks of birth.