26 May 2013. Ruthven Park, Cayuga ON. The Tyrant Flycatchers, or Tyrannidae, is a large New World family of some 425 species of mostly insectivorous birds. Many of them are maddeningly difficult to tell apart although here in southern Ontario we have relatively few members of the family so not too many lookalikes. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of the Tyrannidae this year including the Scissor-tail Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee and Vermillion Flycatcher in Mexico, and Tropical Kingbird and Masked Tityra in El Salvador. I have to admire Tyrant Flycatchers when I see them, even if I’m sometimes (often) stumped trying to decide which of Least, Willow and Alder Flycatcher I’m looking at.
This morning at the bird observatory we had a Least Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe, Great-crested Flycatcher and Eastern Wood Peewee whilst doing the census and banded an Eastern Kingbird a little later; a five tyrant morning.
Two of us did the census starting early around 6.45 when there was still a touch of frost on the ground (!). We spent well over two hours scouring the grounds, woods and river valley, determined to see everything possible. In the end we did reasonably well although there were some conspicuous absences, but we were pleased with a careening and wheeling family group of ten Chimney Swifts, several Orchard Orioles, countless Baltimore Orioles and with finding a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at her flimsy, twig-platform nest.
Last year whilst birding with a visitor from Quebec I learned that the French name for the Eastern Kingbird is Tyran Tritri, an onomatopoeic nod to its tin-can-rattle “tri-tri-tri” call of indignation. I’m hard put to choose between the Eastern Kingbird and the Great-crested Flycatcher as today’s Bird of the Day, they’re both birds with attitude. Here they are.
