Michael,

Now staioned at Los Alamos, NM, I can safely vouch that most of
your kingbirds will indeed turn out to be western's (of course, that does
nothing to cetify that vagrants further north need be as well - a tough
identification foray is still likely in order)

Paul Duval
LANL
Los Alamos, NM

P.S. For those who have yet to venture to Bosque del Apache - very highly
recommended indeed (even before the flux of sandhill cranes and white kind
of geese - both Ross' and snow)

On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, Michael Price wrote:

> Hi Tweets,
>
> Christine Vadai/Tom Phillips write:
>
> >8/24
> >* Black Swifts (big flock overhead)
> >* Western Kingbird (hunting from the top of a dead tree next door)
> >Western Tanagers
>
> My eye got hooked on "Western Kingbird". This late in the southbound
> migration, I'd encourage birders to take a second look at any kingbird not
> obviously an Eastern Kingbird T. tyrannus, and to avoid if possible the
> natural assumption that any yellow-bellied kingbird at this time of year is
> automatically a Western Kingbird T. verticalis. Most likely it is for the
> next couple-three weeks, but there's always the chance that it might check
> out to be an early Tropical/Couch's-type Kingbird T. melancholicus/T. couchii.
>
> Western K's typically have a barely-notched dark grey tail with white outer
> tail-feathers, while Tropical and Couch's have well-notched tails lacking
> white outers.
>
> How to separate Tropical and Couch's on plumage seems to be a fool's game
> given their great plumage similarity; most experts assert that in the field
> only their calls are diagnostic.
>
> Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
> Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
> mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
> Aphra Behn (1640-1689)
>
>