Several days ago, a tropical kingbird was sighted in southwest Metro Denver, just west of South Platte Reservoir. As one might expect, it has since attracted birders from throughout the region and I made my pilgrimage yesterday afternoon (after all, the location is just a few miles south of our Littleton farm).
Though the weather was far from tropical (cloudy, cold and misty), the large, attractive flycatcher was gleaning insects from the side of a building, stopping to rest on a barbed wire fence. Joined by a Say's phoebe and a small flock of house finches, the rare vagrant seemed unfazed by the raw, autumn weather.
Permanent residents of Mexico, Central America, northern South America and extreme South Texas, tropical kingbirds also breed in southeastern Arizona. While most birds withdraw toward the Tropics in winter, some have long traveled northward along the Pacific Coast; most stop in California but some have been sighted in the Pacific Northwest, as far north as southeast Alaska. Other vagrants have turned up in valleys of the Intermountain West, along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and even in the Great Lakes region. Most of the far-flung vagrants have been encountered during the spring or fall; controversy remains as to whether some of the sightings (especially those in the East) were of Couch's Kingbird.
Though the weather was far from tropical (cloudy, cold and misty), the large, attractive flycatcher was gleaning insects from the side of a building, stopping to rest on a barbed wire fence. Joined by a Say's phoebe and a small flock of house finches, the rare vagrant seemed unfazed by the raw, autumn weather.
Permanent residents of Mexico, Central America, northern South America and extreme South Texas, tropical kingbirds also breed in southeastern Arizona. While most birds withdraw toward the Tropics in winter, some have long traveled northward along the Pacific Coast; most stop in California but some have been sighted in the Pacific Northwest, as far north as southeast Alaska. Other vagrants have turned up in valleys of the Intermountain West, along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts and even in the Great Lakes region. Most of the far-flung vagrants have been encountered during the spring or fall; controversy remains as to whether some of the sightings (especially those in the East) were of Couch's Kingbird.
