Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada (B), Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, St Pierre and Miquelon (P), Suriname, Turks and Caicos Islands, USA (B), Venezuela.
Vagrant to Dominica, Greenland, Jamaica, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, St Kitts And Nevis.
Breeds throughout much of North America, from British Columbia east to Newfoundland, south to northern New Mexico, central Texas and southern Florida (absent only in Alaska, much of northern Canada, and parts of western and south-western USA). Winters in South America south to Argentina.
Population
Estimated population is 13,000,000 (2010).
Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) [XC57571]
by Russ Wigh from Kettle Moraine State Park, South Unit, Waukesha Co., Wisconsin, United States (call)
Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) [XC253537]
by Antonio Xeira from Teller Farms, Boulder County, Colorado, United States (call)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Closest relatives of genus may be Empidonomus and Tyrannopsis. Recent molecular-sequence data indicate present genus is monophyletic and sister-group to clade that includes Empidonomus and Griseotyrannus. There are two main clades within genus, loosely corresponding to "tropical species assemblage" and combination of "W" and "E" species groups of earlier authors, but with some exceptions. Phylogenetic analyses indicate it is basal to a clade including Cassin's Kingbird (Tyrannus vociferans), Western Kingbird (Tyrannus verticalis) and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus) within an "eastern and western species group" that may also include Loggerhead Kingbird (Tyrannus caudifasciatus) and/or Giant Kingbird (Tyrannus cubensis). Western populations of this species sometimes separated (as subspecies hespericola) from eastern ones primarily on basis of differences in lengths of wing, tail and tarsus and in width of white terminal tailband, but considered insignificant.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet