The Howland
Picture Pages: Couch's Kingbird The Howland
Picture Pages: Couch's KingbirdPage by Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/10/09 20:33:26 $ (UTC)
The Couch's Kingbird (Tyrannus couchii) is one of the uncommon relatives of the more widespread Western Kingbird. Along with its more closely related cousin, the Tropical Kingbird, the Couch's is slightly larger than the Western, and is a brighter yellow in coloration. The Couch's variety is found in only a few places in North America during the summer, with its principal range being around the Rio Grande river valley in south Texas and (infrequently) a few other localized spots along the south coast of the U.S. This is not a bird likely to be encountered in our home stomping grounds of Alberta, that's for sure!
The Couch's Kingbird was recently split as a separate species from the Tropical Kingbird, and guides indicate that the only reliable way to separate them in the field is by voice. The identification of the only examples of Couch's Kingbird so far on this page was made due to the location where the birds were seen.
Resources where you can find out more:
|
|
This photo and the next one are shots of two different individuals from a group of at least 15 Couch's Kingbirds we spotted at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on March 13, 2004. This was our first trip to this location, we were both sick with nasty colds, and the weather was solid overcast with long periods of wind and heavy rain. A typical Texas coast spring weekend I suppose! (Except for the part about being sick.) In any event, I was happy to get any kind of even tolerable photo results from the trip. Aransas NWR is a fantastic birding spot, and we saw many new species, including this group of Couch's Kingbird hanging around the parking lot at the main visitor center. They were fun to watch as they flew around, called and squabbled amongst themselves. We knew immediately from the bright yellow color that they weren't the garden variety Western Kingbirds we were familiar with from home and our time spent in Colorado. This photo was taken with my digiscoping setup.
|
||||
|
|
Here I had a better set up with a second individual from the group, with it sitting closer and in the open. Unfortunately the wind had picked up since my earlier series of shots, and simply didn't let up before we decided to move on. With the slow shutter speeds I was getting due to the overcast it just wasn't possible to get a sharp shot off. I had lowered my tripod legs to the minimum extension and otherwise tried to stabilize things, but the branch the bird was sitting on was bouncing around in the wind quite a bit. I couldn't do much about that other than take as many frames as possible before the bird flew on, and hope that at least some would turn out. This photo also was taken with my digiscoping setup.
|
Unless stated otherwise, all photos and other content on these pages is copyright © 2002 - 2004 by Royce Howland.
Please don't steal anything for your own purposes, in particular if you have a plan for making fabulous stacks of cash in so doing. If you would like to use a photo or other content you find here, or just want to contact us about something, please send email to royce@3ge.com.
