** Henry wrote -

On my way back from South Bend I spotted a very bright yellow
breasted Kingbird perched on a wire. I quickly found a place to turn
around and went back to investigate this bird. It had remained where I
first observed it and when I looked through my binoculars, I knew I had
found a Tropical Kingbird. I had the opportunity to see Tropical Kingbirds
in Costa Rica last March and I feel confident in identifying the bird as a
Tropical Kingbird. It had the large thick bill, bright yellow breast and
under parts with no graying of the upper breast, gray head, dark mask,
mostly white throat, grayish olive back, no white on the outer tail feather
and a notch in the tail (although a rather scraggly one).
-----------
The curmudgeons among us would point out that when Couch's and Tropical
Kingbirds were split a while ago, voice was one of the separators. They are
so close in plumage that one should try to get the little sucker to say
something to nail the ID. Do we really know that all Tropical Kingbirds on
the coast in the fall and winter are really Tropicals and not Couch's?

- Jack

Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca