This tough little bird won't back down (originally published spring 2002)

We’ve all heard about the college linebacker who was considered too small to play in the NFL, but

Then the guy gets drafted and becomes a star, leading the league in tackles every year. No running back, quarterback or receiver wants to cross his path. No lineman, regardless of his size or bulk, wants the responsibility of blocking him.

In the bird world, the eastern kingbird is that undersized linebacker. It’s an average-sized bird, but knows no fear and is fiercely territorial. Crows, more than double the size of kingbirds, are public enemy number one. Kingbirds may look dainty next to a crow, but there’s nothing dainty about watching an eight-inch kingbird chase away an 18-inch crow.

The kingbird is relentlessly aggressive and almost always wins its battles. Even hawks that cross into a kingbird’s territory suffers the wrath of the little tyrant and gets unceremoniously escorted away. (Mockingbirds will also take on birds such as crows and hawks.) Kingbirds have been reported to ride on the backs of the larger birds and peck at their heads.

It’s as if a 320-pound professional wrestler with bursting muscles breaks into the house of a fairly-built 150-pound man. Then the owner proceeds to toss around and body slam the wrestler until he runs away screaming.

So I guess it comes as no surprise that the kingbird’s scientific name is Tyrannus tyrannus and that they are from the Tyrant Flycatcher family.

Tyrant flycatchers, which also include eastern phoebes and great-crested flycatchers, sit on a perch and wait for insects to fly by. The birds then fly out and grab the insect with its bill _ a hunting method known as hawking.

For all its tyrannical nature and aggressiveness, the kingbird is actually quite an attractive bird. Its colors are simple _ black, white and gray _ but the kingbird is distinctive. The head and back are black and dark gray and the throat and belly are pure white. The wings may also show streaks of white. The most distinguishing field mark is the white band at the tip of the tail. 

Kingbirds also have an orange-red stripe on the head, but it’s concealed and rarely seen.

Eastern kingbirds are a reliable sighting nearly everywhere I go. In the past month, I’ve been birdwatching from Delaware to New York City’s Central Park to New England and I’ve seen kingbirds at nearly every turn. But that’s not to say I tire of seeing kingbirds. The binoculars raise and heart rate elevates with each sighting.

My most memorable sighting of a kingbird came one morning at Powder Mill Pond. I was on the water well before sunrise and settled near a large patch of high grasses poking through a shallow portion of the water. As the golden rays of the rising sun illuminated the lush grasses, the steamy water and a bright red barn in the distance, a kingbird flew to the top of a sturdy piece of grass and claimed that portion of the pond to be his.

I watched the morning spectacle a bit longer and moved on my way.

Eastern kingbirds are just as likely to be seen in less natural settings, such as perched on telephone wires, sign posts or otherwise along roadsides.

We get to enjoy eastern kingbirds for only about five or six months as they migrate south for the cold season. Kingbirds are one of the relatively few species that will migrate during the day.

But once they set up home in the spring, other birds are wise to take notice and avoid the area. No one wants to get tackled by the hardest-hitting linebacker in the league.

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