kingbirds

My bees, above any other tenants of my farm, attract my attention and respect; I am astonished to see that nothing exists but what has its enemy, one species pursue and live upon the other: unfortunately our kingbirds are the destroyers of those industrious insects; but on the other hand, these birds preserve our fields from the depredation of crows which they pursue on the wing with great vigilance and astonishing dexterity.

Letters from an American Farmer J. Hector St. John de Cr��vecoeur 1774

We watched ducks and kingbirds, robins and crows and other birds.

"The morning light shows water in the valley." greygirlbeast 2009

Eventually the kingbirds came back to their starting point and spread themselves out -- perched two on driftwood logs a fair distance apart and one on the mile marker.

Archive 2009-05-01 2009

A bit later I heard a big commotion of least terns and eastern kingbirds.

Archive 2009-05-01 2009

A white gull feather blew past me and two eastern kingbirds swooped on it from different directions apparently both under the misapprehension that it was a flying insect of some kind.

Archive 2009-07-01 2009

A white gull feather blew past me and two eastern kingbirds swooped on it from different directions apparently both under the misapprehension that it was a flying insect of some kind.

saturday's shift 2009

There were a few eastern kingbirds catching flies in the wrack and a couple of Bonaparte's gulls.

bird baths in the road and other anomalies 2009

After awhile two more eastern kingbirds arrived and the first one chased them off.

Archive 2009-05-01 2009

The scissor-tailed flycatcher, eastern meadowlark, lark sparrow, and eastern and western kingbirds are indicator species of the region.

Prairie Parkland (Subtropical) Province (Bailey) 2009

The kingbirds had ventured into the least tern territory and the terns were having none of it.

Archive 2009-05-01 2009