Monday, July 20, 2020

Western Kingbird

The western kingbird is a member of the tyrant flycatcher family. It has a gray head, a dark line through the eyes, gray-olive upperparts, and the underparts are light and then becoming light orange-yellow on the lower breast and belly. It has a dark tail and is partly distinguished from Cassin's kingbird which has white on the tip of the tail while the western kingbird has white outer tail feathers. 

They wait on an open perch and fly out to catch insects in flight. Sometimes they will hover and then drop to catch insects on the ground. 
They breed in western North America and then migrate to Florida and the Pacific coast of southern Mexico and Central Mexico for the winter. 

I saw these western kingbirds at Corn Springs in the Chuckwalla Mountains on July 18, 2020, early in the morning. 

1 comment:

  1. That final one looks like it is a completely different color than the previous ones. Is it just the light? I can see the hint of yellow under that folded wing.

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