There’s A King In The Meadow!

The Eastern Kingbird is one of my favorite birds. It has a noble name and I happen to believe it behaves in quite a stately manner, which supports that royal moniker. It’s a fairly large bird. That means that my old, reduced-vision eyes can see it from afar. And, it typically hunts in the open, which also enhances my chances to spot it. Finally, it has a very distinctive color pattern. It is black on the back with a white belly. The tip of its tail feathers are white. That little feature helps this stately bird appear to be wearing wearing spats to accompany its regal tuxedo.

A couple of days ago, I tried to go on a ride-about between bouts of intermittent rain. Although part way through the trip I ended up needing to ride out a ten minute down-pour under some overhanging trees, I was also offered a very special opportunity after that rain had passed. On my way back to the house through the pond meadow, I witnessed several E Kingbirds doing what Kingbirds do.

I first noticed them at the top of a medium sized tree. They were engaged in hanging on tightly as a strong breeze caused the branches to sway to and fro. It was late afternoon and I was shooting upwards into an overcast sky, so these photos are not terribly clear. To be honest I didn’t actually know what type birds I was capturing at that moment. At least I was filming actual birds. Earlier, over by the corridor behind the old house, I shot over one hundred images of a dead, broken leaf at the top of a maple tree. My only defense is that it was shaped very much like a bird and it was colored quite similarly to an Orchard Oriole! The wind was truly swinging that branch – and that incredible “bird” was hanging on for dear life. I had to record the event – repeatedly, click after click after click!

Back to the pond meadow: here are a few shots of the E Kingbirds. First, there was one bird, then another flew into the same tree. Their close proximity to each other made me think they were either a mated pair, or parent and offspring.

Next they flew down to the ground which is covered in grasses, clover, wild flowers and other vegetation (I don’t really consider plants in that space as “weeds” since they are not unwanted species among other cultivars.) The birds perched at the tops of taller plants, and occasionally flitted across the very top of the ground cover, hovered and then typically dropped down to nab a meal. I was able to film two and three birds hunting in the same half-acre space. It’s hard to say if they were parents with a chick, one parent with two youngsters or three unrelated Kingbirds. To me they appeared to have some type of connection.

Here are some images of the birds hunting.

These next photos include two or three birds together. At times, they sat quietly on the plants for several minutes before taking flight again. I must say that their general repose presented me with a sense of tranquility, even if they failed to recognize I was sharing their prairie.