Guide to North American Birds

This bird's famous song, with its varied repetitions and artful imitations, is heard all day during nesting season (and often all night as well). Very common in towns and cities, especially in southern areas, the Mockingbird often seeks insects on open lawns. When running in the open it may stop every few feet and partly spread its wings, flashing the white wing patches. Mockingbirds are bold in defense of their nests, attacking cats and even humans that venture too close.

This species is the only widespread kingbird in the east. Common and conspicuous in summer, it is often seen perched jauntily on a treetop or fence wire, or sallying out with shallow fluttering wingbeats to catch an insect in mid-air. In winter in South America it takes on a different personality, living in flocks in tropical forest and dining on berries.

In open country of the west, the Western Kingbird is often seen perched on roadside fences and wires, flying out to snap up insects -- or to harass ravens, hawks, or other large birds that stray too close to the kingbird's nest. Spunky and adaptable, this flycatcher has adjusted well to advancing civilization within its range. It frequently builds its nest where wires attach to utility poles, and may be seen tending its young there even along busy city streets.

A localized resident of the Bahamas and a few other islands in the western Caribbean, this hefty mockingbird has strayed to southern Florida on a number of occasions since the early 1970s. One male returned for several springs to Key West, where it may have interbred with local Northern Mockingbirds.

Widespread in the Caribbean, this big flycatcher enters our area mainly in Florida. There it is numerous in summer, mainly along the coasts, less common toward the north. The Gray Kingbird is often conspicuous, perching in the open and giving loud, arresting calls. Its original nesting habitat along the coast has been partly taken over by development, but the bird has adapted, and it now nests in residential areas, farmland, and even cities.

Only distantly related to our Northern Mockingbird, this slaty-blue Mexican specialty is an elusive skulker of dense thickets. It has strayed north very rarely into southern Arizona, where some individuals have been known to linger for several months.

As suggested by its scientific name vociferans, Cassin's is our noisiest kingbird (except for the very localized Thick-billed). Possibly it has more need for vocal communication because it lives in denser habitat than most. Males have a strident 'dawn song,' a rising berg-berg-berg-BERG, often heard at first light but rarely later in the day, sometimes confused with song of Buff-collared Nightjar. Where present in numbers (as on wintering grounds in Mexico), flocks may gather to roost in large concentrations.

One of the most widespread birds of the American tropics, this species reaches the United States mainly in southern Arizona. There it is the quietest and most inconspicuous of the four kingbird species present. Beginning in the early 1990s a few Tropicals were also found in southern Texas, where they overlap with their close relative, Couch's Kingbird. Unlike most kingbirds, Tropicals are seldom found in flocks.