A New Bird

Cindy spotted a new bird, or a bird that's at least new to us, in the shrubbery yesterday.  It had a similar coloring to the Lesser Goldfinches we see regularly, but this bird was much larger than the Goldfinches.

It had a yellow underside, from its throat to the underside of its long tail feathers.  We watched it for several minutes, frantically thumbing through the field guide to western birds at the same time.  It stayed in the shrubs for a while, then finally left.

I finally checked the Tropical Kingbird, a member of the flycatcher family, on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds search guide.  The description of the Tropical Kingbird sounded a lot like the bird we saw, but its normal habitat is mostly South America.  But the "Cool Facts" listed under the bird's life history indicates that "the Tropical Kingbird has become a regular fall visitor to the Pacific Coast of the United States.  Nearly every year a few wandering kingbirds are discovered there."

That made sense to us; the monsoonal flow must bring them up from the Gulf of Mexico and a few apparently go sightseeing.

The Guide also says that the Tropical Kingbird likes to go after large flying insects; we're hoping this one will take on the huge Junebug that has been chomping its way through our Avocado tree leaves.   And maybe a few of those bothersome Black Flies for dessert.