Cassin's Kingbird

About the Cassin's Kingbird

Cassin's Kingbird is the mountain cousin in the yellow-bellied kingbird clan, darker gray on the head and chest than the familiar Western Kingbird, with a crisp white chin that stands out like a strap on the dark face. Its scientific name vociferans means noisy, and it earns it, delivering an emphatic chi-BEW from high snags all day.

In Texas it is a bird of the Trans-Pecos, nesting in the oak and juniper country of ranges like the Davis Mountains, where it hawks insects from exposed perches with the swagger common to all kingbirds.

This bird was photographed along the Madera Canyon Trail in the Davis Mountains on a June morning loaded with West Texas specialties.