Quote of the Week, Perhaps a Bit Longer

"The biological community is a vast and complicated system for sharing and distributing the energy of the sun among a diversity of life forms." ~Martson Bates

6/24/09

Western Kingbird

There are a lot of Western Kingbirds (Tyrannus verticalis) flying around the ranch right now. They are pretty birds with a yellow belly, gray head, and black wings and tail feathers. The feathers of the head and the belly are quite muted. The birds in general have an overall pale appearance to them.

Kingbirds are fun to watch. They are aggressive by nature and can often be seen chasing each other, defending their territory. It looks to me like they are doing crazy air dances. They eat flying insects which can make their flight pattern appear chaotic. They live in open, dry country typically choosing telephone poles, fence posts and other man made objects for their nesting and perching needs.

Western Kingbird recieved 06/24/09 from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_Kingbird.JPG

Sources:

Western Kingbird, (n.d.), Retrieved June 24, 2009 from All About Birds: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Kingbird/lifehistory
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

cool little birds, i had a whole flock of little black birds chase me in the fields this morning, i thought it was the resurrection of the birds (but maybe, hopefully, they were just eating the mosquitoes chasing me :)

June 24, 2009 at 11:39 AM

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