Interesting, but a couple things we can say for sure. First, it is
absolutely not a juvenile (hatch year bird). Take a look at primaries 9 and
10....they exhibit pronounced notching and that is only found in adults.
Given that both primaries 9 and 10 are heavily notched indicates that it is
an adult male (notching is quite a bit smaller in females). Eastern
Kingbirds are also a classic example of counter-shading (dark above, light
below). The function of counter-shading is clear in some taxa (pelagic
fish), but less clear in other taxa. However, one thing that it does is
create shadows along the flanks and ventral surface when an animal is
viewed from the side, which is evident in the photo. The yellowish hint on
the light colored ventral surface that can also be seen is likely
reflection from the water. I'm pretty certain that this is a typical
Eastern Kingbird. Hybrids between Western Kingbirds and Scissor-tailed
Flycatchers are very well documented (most recently in the southeastern
U.S., Arkansas/Tennessee) where both species are expanding their range, and
that makes sense because they belong to the same clade within the genus
Tyrannus. Eastern Kingbirds are in a different clade within Tyrannus, and
therefore less closely related. Songs of Westerns and Scissor-tails are
somewhat similar, but both are very different from the songs sung by
Eastern Kingbirds.
Michael
On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 8:41 AM Darrel Faxon <t4c1x@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Did anybody else look at the photos on this e-bird report? I'm not
convinced. It appears to me to be a hatch year bird, and there are some
features of plumage that don't appear typical in comparison to the
illustrations in Sibley (dark flanks, for example) The slight suffusion of
yellow on the belly perhaps might give reason for the proposed
identification, but is it possible that is only a feature of juvenile
plumage in what appears to me to be otherwise a fairly typical Eastern
Kingbird?
Darrel
