Since Christmas Day, December 25, 2014, Manhattan has been a buzz throughout the birdwatching community far and wide! Thanks to New York City birder and Naturalist Educator for the New York City Audubon, Gabriel Willow who was contact by a resident of the West Village in Manhattan, Zack Winestine., who sent him a photograph on Christmas Day 2014 of what is now known as the famed Couch’s Kingbird (Tyrannus couchii). The First State Record ever in New York State and only the third ever to show up in the northeast.
A large, brightly colored flycatcher of southern Texas and Mexico, the Couch’s Kingbird is very similar to the more widespread Tropical Kingbird. The two were considered the same species for nearly one hundred years, but they can be separated by voice and very subtle morphological characters.
Food: Flying insects, some fruit.
Habitat: Lives in thorn forest, brushy clearings in tropical forest, abandoned agricultural fields overgrown with shrubs, riparian areas, and suburbs.
Live link updates on locations of the Couch’s Kingbird http://tinyurl.com/oxdvd3z
Couch’s Kingbird map of locations in NYC December 2014. Permission & thanks from creator of map Arie Gilbert.
Additional links and press on the Couch’s Kingbird:
12/29/14 6;57pm – A Rare Find, Couch’s King Bird Makes Appearance In The West Village « CBS New York http://cbsloc.al/1ztWRqL
12/29/14 – Couch’s Kingbird spotted for first time in New York | New York Post. http://nypost.com/2014/12/29/couchs-kingbird-spotted-for-first-time-in-new-york/
