Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE FREE-TOED PERCHING BIRDS
THE TYRANT-BIRDS
Kingbird, Bee-Martin
Perhaps the most abundant and conspicuous species inhabiting eastern North America is the Kingbird, Bee-bird, or Bee-Martin (Tyrannus tyrannus). About eight and a half inches in length, it is grayish slate-color above, becoming darker on the head and pure white washed with grayish on the breast below, the tail being black, tipped with white, while through the middle of the crown runs a concealed patch of bright orange-red. It is strictly migratory, returning from its winter home in Central and South America in April or early May and remaining until September. It is most frequently seen along roadsides or about orchards, where it usually perches on a dead branch and keeps a constant lookout for passing insects, which it flies out and seizes, returning immediately to its post. It has a fondness for the honey-bee; but as Dr. Coues well says, it probably captures a thousand other insects for every bee it takes, and is deserving of the fullest protection-. No particular attempt is made at concealing the nest, which is usually at the extremity of a horizontal branch of an apple or other fruit tree at a height of fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. It is a compact structure made of weed stalks, grasses, etc., and lined with fine grasses, rootlets, and plant down, and the eggs, from three to five in number, are white, handsomely spotted with umber. The notes and calls of the Kingbird are loud and not altogether unmusical, and are uttered with an excess of energy which makes them always attractive. The male takes little or no part in incubating the eggs, but is assiduous in caring for the young, and moreover is always on the watch near the nest for possible enemies, and Cuckoos, Blackbirds, Jays, Crows, and even Hawks and Eagles are fearlessly attacked if they venture too close to the cherished home and by repeated darts and spiteful pecks are driven from the neighborhood.