We arrived at the Tropical Kingbird site at 10:30 this morning (12/29/06).  The bird had not been seen by an observer who started at 7:30, but it flew in from the southwest at 10:42.  It performed  well, spending most of its time catching insects near the gray house nearest the intersection of Adler's Rest Lane with Reading Ferry Road.  Later, about 12:15 it moved to the yard of the next house north and hunted insects there, with one trip across the road to the trees north of the field, then soon back again.  It was still in the yard of the next house when we left at about 12:45.
 
Having received for Christmas the recently published National Geographic Complete Birds of North America, edited by Jonathan Alderfer, and stated to be the "perfect companion and complement to the ....National Geograpic Field Guide to the Birds of North America", we took the opportunity to see what it contained about the comparison between Tropical and Couch's Kingbirds.  Of interest were the comments that "On folded wing, Tropical's primary tips visible beyond secondaries appear unevenly spaced (adults)", whereas for Couch's "on adults folded wing primary tips beyond secondaries are evenly spaced (uneven in Tropical)".  We spent a good deal effort scoping the bird at high power and at perhaps 40-50 yards away to see if we could judge the unevenness or evenness of the spacing of the primary tips.  I thought I could see unevenness with a greater space between the shortest primary tip and the next than between the tips of the next pair, but I would say I was only about 80-90 % confident of this point.  Other observers (I got the impression) agreed, whereas some others were less confident.
 
Now, I'm wondering if any of the photos obtained by Mark or others permit a definitive decision on this point.  I can't make a judgement based on the eight photos Mark just posted, but perhaps other shots will tell the tale.
 
Someone suggested that the pale edging on the primaries and wing coverts indicate the bird is less than adult.  Alderfer says that in juveniles the upperwing and uppertail coverts and tail are "edged pale cinnamon".  However to our eyes and In Mark's photos the wing and wing covert edging appeared to be pale whitish, not cinnamon.  However,if the bird is determined not to be an adult, the whole wing-tip question would then seem, according to the Alderfer text, to be moot
 
Comments welcome !!.
 
Harvey Mudd