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Paul O'Brien

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Fri, 29 Dec 2006 20:02:27 EST

Harvey,

The Kingbird appears to be a juvenile because of the extensive edging on the 
coverts.   The uneven spacing of primaries is said to be only on adult males, 
so you have a one in four chance of seeing it.   Besides, the bill shape tells 
all, long with a straight culmen up until near the tip.

Paul O'Brien
Rockville, Mont. Co., MD

In a message dated 12/29/06 7:13:59 PM,  writes:


> 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   
>