Saturday, October 22, 2016

tropical Tropical Kingbirds

unlike the one in the UP, these pics are from Costa Rica.  I'm not sure if I'll go after the UP Tropical.  I haven't had a day off since it was found and don't have one any time soon either.  In the hopes of finding one here I've occasionally photographed them in the neotropics to work on comparison file photos.

Tropical is said to have a slightly more notched tail than the similar Couch's; certainly the notching is apparent on this bird.

 A look at the bill base.  It's thinner looking straight on than I would expect from the side views.
 This is the same individual with less back-light.  You can start to get a sense of the back color.  Tropical is said to average slightly greener than Couch's, but again this is an average difference and hard to evaluate on individual birds.

A side view of a different individual...
Pale edgings to the wing coverts likely indicate a first winter bird.

Next is my only pic of a Couch's Kingbird (from S Texas) back in the digi-scoping days.  Based on the wing coverts it's also a young bird (though photographed in late summer it's even younger).
This bird is still growing in its outer tail feathers so I'm not sure any comparison can actually be drawn between the degree of notching between this and the lead-off Tropical

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