Tropical/Couch's Kingbird in St. Louis County
2011-10-28

Five or fewer records in St. Louis County for the Fall season

I first observed this Kingbird while I was sitting in my living room when I saw some movement out my window and thought "a Western Kingbird in my yard!!" so I went out to photograph the bird. The bird flew over my house and towards the backyard. I decided to wait for the bird out on the road in front of my house to see if the kingbird would show itself again. The kingbird arrived back on the same crab apple tree and was picking off insects off the side of my house. Soon the kingbird landed on the phone wire and I got off 5 photos of the bird. I realized that this kingbird doesn't have white outer tail feathers and I thought by range it must be a Cassin's Kingbird. So I called Kim Eckert and Peder Svingen who arrived about 30 minutes later. The bird left my yard but I was able to show Kim & Peder the photos I took and with their experiences with this kingbird ( seen Couches and Tropical only once in my life ) they were able to ID the bird as a Couche's / Tropical Kingbird. There are a few records of Tropical Kingbirds in the Midwest and we were leaning on Tropical vs Couche's but the sad thing it never called. I will post all 4 out of 5 photos to this website.

Mike L. Hendrickson