ML21151731
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
- Sounds
- Call
- Playback
- Not specified
Media notes
This is the Western Kingbird like call the bird gave in the afternoon. This recording is taken from a movie from my camera an Olympus S590.
Observation details
This morning Priscilla and I looked for the kingbird, being reported as a Tropical, in Sunset Park, Visalia, Tulare Co. This kingbird was first reported on November 12. Priscilla first spotted it and called me over. After taking a few photos and getting excellent views of the bird through binoculars I got suspicious about it. It had a very bright green back, extremely yellow underparts and the bill seemed shorter and stouter than I'm used to seeing on Tropical Kingbirds. I also thought the tail seemed slightly less notched than a Tropical. So I started playing Couch's Kingbird recordings. It perked up right away and started calling. Its calls matched exactly the Sibley app recording labeled "calls #2_TX", a "breeeer" type call with a few "kips". I then confirmed with Jon Dunn & Curtis Marantz by phone that a Tropical Kingbird would not make this call. It gave these "breeer" calls at least a dozen times before we lost the bird. I then alerted the birding community and we left. We came back in the early afternoon and were joined by others. At that time John Sterling first heard the bird, making the Western Kingbird like "kip" call, and then we located it. After that we got to see it again very well and it called the "kip" call pretty much consistently until we left. In the afternoon we did not hear the "breeer" call we heard in the morning. I was not able to get a recording of the "breeer" call in the morning but I did record the "kip" call on our afternoon visit. This will make only the second record for California.
Technical information
- Recorder
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 477.89 KB