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Subject:

Fw: view of Myriarchus/Tyrannus today

From:

The Brodericks

Reply-To:

The Brodericks

Date:

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 11:45:25 -0500

Here's the latest!
Now let;'s get this all sorted out folks.
Don Broderick
Salisbury

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "srubybird" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 5:43 PM
Subject: view of Myriarchus/Tyrannus today


> Dear Don:
>
> After making four trips to the site of the Myriarchus, I and my wife 
> found it after searching for a half hour in very good light this 
> afternoon (Sunday Dec 24) and observed it between 3:15 and 3:30 when 
> we left.  It was "hawking" for bugs from a tree next to the house by 
> the field.  Saw it successfully get some large green caterpillar 
> like food. The tree has a birdbath under it.  We observed it with 
> binoculars and with 20x spotting scope.  I got through the scope 
> both front and back views clearly for several minutes each while 
> perched in the bare tree. Because it was busy feeding, the sightings 
> were different views of the bird as it returned to the tree. 
> Several times it went to the ground to get food and other times were 
> catches in the air.  Unfortunately my camera does not work with my 
> scope so I didn't take any pictures.
>
> Description:
>
> Size similar to the mockingbird in the same area.
> Gray head with black thick beak
> small whitish area in the throat
> breast and belly all yellow,  Upperbreast is smudgy, dirty yellow 
> compared to the bright lemon yellow of the rest of breast and belly. 
> show yellow flash under the wings.  The yellow was quite glaring in 
> the bright light when the bird perched facing us and was the visual 
> cue that we first spotted as it moved around.
> back is brownish/olive color which contrasted with head
> wings and tail all the same dark chocolate color with some white 
> edging marks in the wings and tail feathers.
> tail is weakly notched but shows no white feathers on outer edge nor 
> any white at tip
>
> My reaction is the bird is a Couch's or Tropical Kingbird which I 
> have seen (Couch's, that is) in south Texas. Whether Couch's or 
> Tropical is based on song so I will lump them.  It lacks the gray 
> breast of the Western Kingbird and is MUCH too yellow to be a Ash 
> Throated Flycatcher.  I have seen both of these in the west (Western 
> Kingbird many times in AZ and TX)
>
> Doug Ruby
>
>
>
> -- 
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> 12/24/2006
>
>