A Cattle Tyrant in Corpus Christi
From blocks away, you couldn't miss the crowd in downtown Corpus Christi, Texas. Birders with binoculars and photographers with long lenses were all looking the same direction. When you got to the spot, you could easily see the yellow bird on the curb. It was the first and only Cattle Tyrant ever seen in the United States.
It’s a rich lemon custard on the front. A species of flycatcher, it normally lives in South America. It ranges barely into Panama. But never north of Panama. Birders were ecstatic. It was a first for nearly everyone. It drew quite a crowd, and a local TV station showed up.
A birder named David Essian first noticed and identified the bird on Nov. 12, 2023. Soon the intersection where he found it was full of excitement.
The flycatcher ran around on the ground, unconcerned with the watchers’ intense focus. His own focus was the fat, black flies around a blue dumpster at the curb. One after another, he grabbed them off the ground. From time to time he leapt up and snatched one out of the air. He was fast.
I put my photo on Facebook, and my friend, Sister Meg Earsley, commented that when she was posted in Bolivia, she saw Cattle Tyrants all the time.
In the grasslands of South America, they perch on the backs of cattle and horses. They watch for insects above or below getting flushed by the animals. The birds fly to the ground and run the insects down, or they fly up and catch their prey out of the air. This one was doing the same thing, but on the street of a Texas city.
It’s a puzzle how this particular bird got to the US. Did he come on a ship that docked at Corpus Christi after sailing from South America or Panama? Did a hurricane give him a ride to North America? So far, we do not know.
I’m making a leap referring to this bird as “he,” because I’m not absolutely certain of the gender. However, some experts report that the female does not have a red-orange patch on the back of the head. This bird had a noticeable crown patch.
This is the first Cattle Tyrant I’ve ever seen anywhere, so it’s a “life bird” for me. Every bird is a life bird the first time a birder finds it, but for me this one is something more. For anyone who sees it, this Cattle Tyrant is a first for their United States life list. But also, this is the first time I’ve seen any individual bird that was making its species’ first appearance in the US.
It is my first first.
The purple area is where Cattle Tyrants live.
Map is by Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
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