ML486311361

Observation details

** Rare ** Identified perched in snag along country road. Large kingbird; dark blackish cap; honking thick black bill; white throat; upper breast white and gray; medium yellow lower breast through undertail. Upperparts greenish-gray. Adult bird, perhaps 2nd year because of ongoing secondary molt due to rusty retained inner secondaries. The bird did not associate closely with any other species. Often perched up in a cottonwood snag or on top of juniper or other smaller tree with frequent feeding flights. The habitat was largely open with interspersed larger cottonwoods, some junipers along the road, and willows around a private pond. It would periodically vocalize for a minute or so but otherwise there were long periods of silence. It would remain on a perch for some time but moved along the road about 0.5 km while we were there. This bird perhaps moved in front of a large monsoonal/tropical flow impacting this area the last 2 days? Given pretty steady and moderately heavy rains all afternoon this bird should stick.