On Mon, 12 Jun 1995, Dennis Paulson wrote:
> Mike Smith wrote: "Seems to me Easterns
> evolved to live in open areas where deciduous trees were dominant (the
> East), and Westerns evolved to live in open areas where conifers are
> dominant (the West)."

> but it is common in oak savanna farther south. Westerns are not at all
> typical of ponderosa pine forests in the Northwest, the conifer habitat I
> would expect them in, and of course most other conifer forests in the
> Northwest didn't really include "open areas" before logging.

Right, I think I was unclear on my earlier post. I think (just a humble
hypothesis of mine) that Eastern Kingbirds are more suited to wet habitats
in Washington because the tree structures to nest in are more similar to
the ones they evolved with (deciduous trees, which in our part of the
world are found near water, or perhaps on golf courses and city parks -
places I have also noticed EAKI), and Westerns are more suited to dry
habitats which have scattered pine trees to nest in (more similar to what
they evolved with?). I don't really ever associate them with any forest
'type', it's more of an association with tree types in nonforested
zones.

This poses another interesting question: prior to the presence of
electric lines, barns, etc., where would you find Western Kingbirds
nesting? Seems to me that would be the few scattered upland trees in the
Columbia Basin (i.e. ponderosa pine).

Just last week, in the Sinlahekin valley, we saw both species of
kingbirds nesting near each other. EAKI in willows on the lakeshore,
WEKI against a window at a public bathroom (rather malodorous spot to
raise young I might add). Why would WEKI nest in such a conspicuous spot
when all those nice willows were only 10 feet away? Either WEKI has some
evolutionary 'memory' that tells it not to nest there, or EAKI is so
competitively superior in those habitats, WEKI has no choice.

-------------
Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike.html