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Couch's Kingbird at Phinizy Swamp, Augusta, GA (eared greebe too)



Hi Folks, (respond to capito@hotmail.com   I check it more often)

First off please note that I have spent several months in Belize and 
Taumalipas, MX encountering this species and Tropical Kingbird (TK) on a 
daily basis and have photos taken of both species in the same tree. It was 
indeed a goal of mine while in the tropics to get to know the differences 
between them. Similarly the full year I spent in the Peruvian/Bolivian 
lowlands supplied me with ample opportunity to get to know TKs and my 
birding trips out west, 6 weeks in Puerto Rico and chasing vagrants out east 
have also supplied me with a working knowledge of  many species in the genus 
Tyrannus.

At noon today (9/21/01) Charles Kwit and I had a brief encounter with a 
Tyrannus kingbird that I am quite close to 100% certain was T. couchii 
(Couch's Kingbird). It descended onto the top of a 9 foot tall shrub as we 
were about to pull out of the parking lot of Phinizy Swamp adjacent to the 
Bush Field Augusta airport (having gone there to confirm that the grebe I 
had the day before was indeed an Eared… FYI: it is). Charles called out 
"kingbird" and I saw (naked eye) that it was gray as opposed to black (it's 
back was facing us)… so I immediately knew it was one of the good ones. I 
immediately looked at the bill shape and tail shape/notching and color. What 
I saw was the following:

The bill's culmen was rather heavily bowed, giving it a blunt appearance as 
opposed to flat which would have given it (what I call) an Olive-sided fly's 
bill- appearance that TK tends to have (in other words the bill was plump as 
opposed to flat or conical). The bird had a dusky "mask" and ashy gray nape, 
crown & neck. The back was slightly darker gray, washed evenly with olive 
green. The tail was only slightly darker gray/brown, lacked pale coloration 
on any part; neither tip nor outer rects; Indeed the outer rects appeared 
the same color as the rest of the tail and projected straight out from the 
body to the outer corners of the fork. The fork in the tail was not 
crescent, but more notched (seen perfectly at nearly even height as us and 
from a perpendicular angle to its surface. As the bird flew it showed a 
yellow breast and belly and, again, no white in the tail.

Dr. Kwit agrees with the forked tail, green back, gray head, mask, tail 
"patern" (or lack thereof). He has no experience with either of the species 
in question but would put it in Tyrannus and (with a guide and no 
prompting... i was running after it) chose TK/Couch's type.

Here's the painful part… It probably vocalized while we were there, but we 
were in the car w/AC on… It flew up from the bush it was in, 20 meters away, 
and flew toward the canopy. I suspected it was salying after an insect and 
figured it would drop back into the same or an adjacent tree, but instead it 
flew behind the crown of a large tree (due south of where it was found) and 
was not seen again for the duration of the 5&1/2 hours put into searching 
(until 7PM). The encounter lasted 20 -  25 seconds. There is ample good 
habitat to the south of the site and on the site itself. We found 2 eastern 
kingbirds (one down the road at the dam and one in the parking lot much 
later and both gave us heart palps.). I will be there at dawn tomorrow.

Direction are as follows:  I-20 to exit 196A, Bobby Jones Expressway 
(I-520). Take Exit 10 (Doug
Barnard Parkway/ Bush Field Airport) and turn right off ramp. After 1 mile, 
turn left onto Lock & Dam Road and travel 1/2 mile to Pkinizy Swamp Nature 
Park entrance on your left. Turn into graveled entrance and parking areas. 
Visitor trail maps and information available at kiosks

For more info on the location see 
http://www.downtownaugusta.com/pswampnp/index.html

Other birds seen there today: Purple Martin, 100+ Bobolinks, Snipe, Am. 
Bittern, Eared Grebe & Merlin

Paul Champlin
New Ellenton, SC
Respond to capito@hotmail.com


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