ML22520711

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

I had just turned the corner onto Mulberry Way when I noticed a bird take off and fly roughly parallel to our path. I thought , is it a bluebird? I glanced again as it turned away from us and said out loud, "It flies like a kingbird. It's a Kingbird!" I stopped the car and was able to just get it in focus through binoculars when it landed in a tree across a small park, flaring its dark tail and revealing a narrow, lighter-colored terminal band. Now quite certain that it was a Cassin's Kingbird, we watched it fly over us and a house before landing high in a tree where it stayed long enough for us to get a few quick photos before flying over some houses toward the southeast. After a couple of minutes searching for it, we located it on a Chinese pistache tree at the corner of Willow Way and Mesquite Ct. There we managed to get a few more hurried photos before it flew again, this time over houses to the north. We were able to see its typical kingbird size and shape with a very slightly hooked, moderately thick bill that appeared to be about half the length of the head or perhaps a little less. The plumage of the back, head, and upper breast was a medium-dark gray that sharply contrasted with a small, white throat patch. The lower breast, belly, and undertail coverts were moderately-bright yellow. The wings and tail were blackish, with pale tips to the retrices. It was clearly a kingbird, and the lack of white outer tail feathers and the very strongly contrasting throat ruled out Western. We felt that a Tropical should show a larger bill, larger white throat patch, and perhaps a brighter yellow to the underparts. This is the third year that Cassin's Kingbird has been recorded on the Los Banos CBC, the previous reports being of one bird each in 1982 and 1983.

Technical information

Model

Canon PowerShot SX50 HS

ISO

640

Focal length

215 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.5

Shutter speed

1/1250 sec

Dimensions

1024 pixels x 768 pixels

Original file size

188.05 KB