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
> |