Kingbird WESTERN BIRDS 



GENUS TYRANNUS: ARKANSAS 

 KINGBIRD. 



Arkansas Kingbird: Tyrannus verticdlis. 

 FAMILY— FLYCATCHERS. 



The Arkansas Kingbird is the western representative 

 of the familiar eastern bird, which is not common west 

 of the Rocky Mountains. This bird is a summer resi- 

 dent from British Columbia to Lower California, extend- 

 ing east to western Minnesota, western Iowa, central 

 Kansas, and western Texas; wintering in Mexico to 

 Guatemala, and being found accidentally in some of the 

 eastern States. 



It is a bird of the open country, not caring for forests 

 but preferring hilly country with trees for nesting sites. 

 While it seems not afraid of mankind it is not so friendly 

 as is its eastern cousin and does not so often nest in 

 orchards. It has, also, less antipathy to Hawks and 

 has been known to build its nest in a tree where nested 

 one of these birds. This western bird is a little larger 

 than his eastern cousin (length nine inches), and is quite 

 different in plumage, being a light ash-gray above and 

 on breast, rest of under parts bright lemon-yellow; tail 

 black with outer web of outer feather white; concealed 

 crown patch red. Never in my study of these birds 

 have I seen that red patch exhibited, not even when 

 they were driving cats or dogs from the vicinity of their 

 nest, nor during the courting days. 



For years these Arkansas Kingbirds made their nest 

 in poles along the street near my home, using one pole 

 until it was taken down, then going around the corner 

 to another of the same kind. These poles were square 

 timbers having at the top two uprights that supported 

 the arm on which wires were strung. On the top of the 



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