Kingbirds prepare to head south

While driving along the south side of Mud Lake, I watched as an eastern kingbird captured a large dragonfly and flew out to a hayfield where it’s young were hunting for smaller insects. It gave the large insect to one of the chicks, only to have three others try to take it away while the parent headed back to capture another large dragonfly.

Once it caught another dragonfly, instead of taking to the kids, the parent called to them to come and get the snack. All three of them headed for the tree along the bank of Mud Lake where they got their reward for coming quickly.

After finishing that offering, the other parent, perching in another tree about a hundred yards away, announced more snacks for the youngsters. Again, all of them flew to that tree – they were getting flying lessons from their parents.

I watched them play these games for about 45 minutes and was about to leave when I heard the call of a western kingbird, the larger cousin of the easterns. There were a pair of westerns with two kids.

I was surprised that to two species were tolerant of each other because while nesting and raising their young, both species are extremely aggressive of any intruders.

In the early spring the males of each specie finds a suitable nesting place and defends it from anything including humans. I had a neighbor who had a western kingbird establish a nest in his tree between his home and his shop. Often his family members would have to dodge attacks from the male as they went to the shop.

Through research, I have learned that as the young leave their nest, the parents become less aggressive and more tolerant of intruders. As I watched, I noticed that they young and adults of both species as well as some mourning doves used the same trees to rest in and the young of both species captured flying insects together.

Southeastern Idaho is positioned where the areas of both the eastern and western kingbirds overlap. Their names come from the area of the United States where the majority of them live, but the western’s numbers are increasing while the easterns are declining due to climate change.

There are some definite differences between the species while are some slight differences. The westerns are larger in size but with a smaller beak which causes them to prefer small insects to gather for food while the easterns have a larger bill, allowing them to gather large dragonflies for their kids to enjoy. Both species are in the flycatcher family and love to pick off flying insects from the air.

Their coloring is much different with the eastern being mostly black or dark gray on the top of their head and white on their breast and belly. Their tail looks like the edge has been dipped in white paint. The westerns are mostly light gray on their back and tail with a yellow breast and belly.

Both species do not hop or walk much, but fly even for short distance while picking of insects. It is believed that both do not drink much water as they get most of their needed moisture from the insects and few berries that they eat. This year I had a pair of easterns nest in my backyard and occasionally I would catch them stealing a raspberry.

As both species winter in Central and South America, the parents only have about a month left to train the young to fly before they head south for the winter. They will migrate in small groups instead of large flocks like other songbirds and some hawks.

If you want to be entertained, find a few of them and watch as they gather food for their kids and prepare for their migration.