Deborah: Thanks for putting together this information. It is informative, interesting, and fun to conjecture about where these birds spent their previous cold weather seasons......
John Turner ----- Original Message ----- From: Deborah Allen Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2015 4:36 pm Subject: [nysbirds-l] Comments and photos re: Cassin's Kingbird at Floyd Bennett Field To: NYSBIRDS-L > On Saturday, December 27th, Bob DeCandido and I paid a visit to > the Cassin's Kingbird at Floyd Bennett Field, obtaining several > photos, among them: > > http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=17935335 > > http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=17935268 > > http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=17935269 > > An examination of the photos reveals that the bird is an adult > male. > > Pyle discusses Cassin's Kingbird in his "Identification Guide to > North American Birds: Part 1" with illustrations of the wing > formula (Figure 171), the shape of the outermost primary (p10) > by sex and age (Figure 173), and a comparison of the shape of P6 > in adult male and female Cassin's Kingbirds (Figure 174). > > Here's a close-up of the outer primaries of the Floyd Bennett > Field Cassin's Kingbird: > > http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=17941419 > > Here we can see that not only is the outermost primary less > deeply notched than that of the similar Western Kingbird (Figure > 176 in Pyle), but P6 is narrower than that of an adult female > Cassin's Kingbird (Figure 174). > > The Slater Museum of Natural History Wing & Tail Image > Collection is also useful in this regard. > > Here's the dorsal surface of an adult male Cassin's Kingbird > from the Slater collection (specimen 78061a): > > http://digitalcollections.pugetsound.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/slaterwing/id/13198/rec/1 > > And the dorsal surface of a male Western Kingbird [not an adult] > from the Slater collection (specimen 17298a) for comparison. P10 > is an adult feathers and has a very long and narrow sickle shape: > > http://digitalcollections.pugetsound.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/slaterwing/id/12466/rec/1 > > We tend to think that birds found outside their normal range are > young birds, but both the Cassin's Kingbird and Couch's Kingbird > are adult males. One wonders where they spent the previous fall > and winter. > > Deborah Allen > > -- > > NYSbirds-L List Info: > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES > http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm > > ARCHIVES: > 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html > 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L > 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html > > Please submit your observations to eBird: > http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ > > -- > -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
