031624 Muskogee Edition, Birding Today

https://www.muskogeephoenix.com/columns/birding-today-author-helps-newbies-with-flycatchers/article_eaec7628-e158-11ee-b5e2-0f769f9d58e0.html 

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Cassin's Kingbird

Chi-beer, chi-bew, chi-beeeer-beeeer-beeeer

Cassin's Kingbird is easily distinguished by a yellow belly, dark gray head and breast, which accentuates the white throat patch.  The tail tip is also white, and it has a thick bill.  This species of kingbird is locally common around tall cottonwoods, ponderosa pine clearings in forests, as well as in oak savannah.  They will even be found in higher elevations than other kingbirds. More of a southwestern bird, it is seen in Oklahoma in one of the hottest spots that I have ever discovered, Black Mesa State Park, and chances are mediocre to good that it is still breeding there.

Like tyrant flycatchers do, it settles upon a perch like limbs, barbed wire, and fenceposts to sally for insects either in flight or upon the ground.  They will also consume fruit and seeds.

                                                                   Cassin's Kingbird
                                                            Patagonia Town Park, 2018

Mating rituals are of interest with flycatchers.  They will hover in place with outstretched wings upon a perch calling in a high pitched tone.  This occurs several times daily, usually in a favored hunting spot.

Trees, fenceposts, and bushes are used for nest sites, but most are found in great heights in taller trees.

Cassin's and Western Kingbirds have a low tolerance for one another, but have clearly been seen nesting in the same tree.  Collective terms for the species are tyranny, court, and  coronation.

There had been mention that a Cassin's was observed in Oklahoma feeding a juvenile Western Kingbird repeatedly in 1997, which raises the question as to whether they may hybridize upon occasion.

Cassin's Kingbird and Other Birds on Panhandle and in Southeast AZ

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2017/05/birding-on-shoestring-life-on-oklahoma.html

https://debhirt.blogspot.com/2018/05/birding-on-shoestring-american_6.html

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Say's Phoebe

Very similar to sallying for insects like other flycatchers, Say's Phoebe is the largest phoebe, as well as the loveliest.  Found in more open expanses than the typical phoebe, it will sometimes hover when foraging.

This tyrant flycatcher was named after a naturalist, Thomas Say, who first encountered it in Colorado in 1819.

                                                             Adult Say's Phoebe


Observed in western Oklahoma, even more so on the Panhandle, it is surprisingly easy to view this bird, sometimes even at close range.  This phoebe will often nest at Black Mesa on cliff crevices, rocky outcroppings, and on horizontal ledges under bridges.  It appears that they prefer shortgrass prairie country including sunlit canyons, open spaces near buildings, and mountain meadows of Black Mesa State Park.  As long as it is dry and desolate, this passerine will be open to the location.

Males arrive first on the nesting grounds and will quickly choose territories, which are in the neighborhood of a couple of acres.  The male will call for a mate and usually finds one quickly, so nesting begins soon after.  Nests mays be found in or on manmade structures, or abandoned mine shafts and caves.

Ranges have been expanding over the years.

The female will locate her nest site, and she will construct her nest, while she allows the male to observe.

                                                                Juvenile Say's Phoebe