Order fasserir< 



assenrormes 



Tyrant Flycatchers: Family Tyrannidae 



Eastern Kingbird: 



Tyrannus tyrannus (Linnaeus) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults: Under parts and band on end of tail pure white; head and tail 

 black; rest of upper parts slate gray; middle of crown with a concealed patch of 

 orange red. Young: crown patch wanting and colors duller, wing and tail coverts 

 edged with brownish, tail band and chest tinged with brownish. Length: 8-9, wing 

 4.45-4.75, tail 3.40-3.75, bill from nostril .50-. 57." (Bailey) Nest: A rather bulky 

 structure of weed stems, grass, wool, string, feathers, or other similar available 

 material, placed in the crotch of bushes or trees, on telephone poles, or about build- 

 ings. Eggs: 3 or 4, white or pink, spotted and blotched with browns and lavender. 

 DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from southern Canada to Nevada, Texas, and 

 Florida. Winters in Central and South America. In Oregon: Common summer resi- 

 dent east of Cascades and Klamath Lake country. 



BENDIRE (1877) reported the Eastern Kingbird as a common summer 

 resident of the John Day Valley, and Miller (1904) found it in the same 

 valley in 1899. Woodcock (1901) reported it from the Grand Ronde 

 Valley and eastward on Anthony's authority; Peck (19113), in Malheur 

 County; Walker (1917!)), at the mouth of the Deschutes River in 1914; 

 Willett (1919), common in Harney County; and Prill (192.2.3), as a breed- 

 ing species from the Warner Valley. In the manuscript notes of various 

 members of the Biological Survey and in our own notes, it has been 

 recorded for every county in eastern Oregon except Klamath and Des- 

 chutes, and undoubtedly it will be found to be a more or less regular 

 inhabitant of the eastern part of the latter. It arrives in May and remains 

 until September (earliest date, May 5; latest, September 15, both Harney 

 County). The eggs are laid in June. The few actual nesting dates we 

 have occur between June 13 and 2.6, although the nesting period un- 

 doubtedly extends over a much longer season. 



The Eastern Kingbird, or Bee Martin, is a familiar sight in the irri- 

 gated valleys and about the big stock ranches of the eastern part of 

 Oregon, where it is often closely associated with the Western Kingbird. 

 Particularly is this true in August when the young of the year have 

 joined their parents in the sport of capturing a winged meal by a short 

 dash from some vantage point. At this season they sit on the telephone 

 wires or the barbed wire fences in straggling formation, the two species 



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