Help!
I have read the posts by Eugene Hunn and Michael Price about my sighting of
a Tropical or Couch's Kingbird and I appreciate the information they
provided. This now leads me into a quandary as to what to call the bird,
probably the safest is Tyrannus sp. as pointed out by Michael. However,
since not all post-breeding birds vocalize during their observation, what
criteria did the Rarity Committee use to determine the validity of the
identification of the previously accepted Tropical Kingbirds without the
observer hearing a vocalization.
Michael states that all acceptable records must eliminate completely
similar species and I agree with him, but in the case of the two Kingbird
species we certainly need to provide information to those of us in the
field to aid in identification of these similar species. I did make an
assumption regarding the Tropical Kingbird based only on my limited
knowledge that all previous winter Kingbird records were identified as
Tropical Kingbirds. I will submit my notes and drawings, but I hope this
sighting will lead to more information regarding the identification of
Tropical/Couch's Kingbirds.

Henry Gilmore
Surfside, WA
hgilmore at willapabay.org