First in State Tropical Kingbird

Even the most casual of yard watchers likes to see new things through their windows. The thrill of a unique, first-time sight of a fox sparrow or red-bellied woodpecker is not to be dismissed lightly. We probably are recreating the wonder and joy of childhood, when the world itself is a new thing, and every moment was filled with a sense of discovery.

Each new experience is a springboard to yet another as we build up a body of memories and knowledge that will keep us eager to rise in the morning. It helps to write down what we have seen and heard, to organize these memories in lists and journals. Such a record allows you to share and compare what you have experienced with others who do the same.

This seems to be the reason why many bird watchers become birders as well. We join a local club, or become members of a state and national organization. We subscribe to a magazine and read about birds and the work of others who study birds. We buy a field guide or a handbook about bird behavior, or a travel guide about where to find new birds in other places.

This is the way a casual recreation becomes a passion. Then we start projects and set goals, measuring what we have done or planning what we want to do. One project for almost all birders is the compiling of a year-list of bird species we have seen in our home state.

The breeding and migration season of our tropical birds is finished. We will not see these birds until next spring, when they will be new birds on a new list. Meanwhile, we may ponder with regret why this year we missed seeing some of them.

Many birders look forward to the day they retire, when they can concentrate more on studying or finding birds. Three friends of mine have recently retired, and they embarked on a friendly competition, to see who could find the most different species in Massachusetts in the year 2000.

You might be surprised to learn that there are almost 290 species on a checklist of birds you might expect to find in our state each year. However, nearly fifty of those are found only with special effort, visiting the right location at the right time and then being lucky as well. It is now November and the three lists stand at 315, 307, and 298 species.

You need help to find this many, which means being connected to the network of other birders, one of whom will find those special birds that only rarely wander into Massachusetts from other parts of the country. These birds will often be 'life birds,' an individual of a species that one has never seen anywhere before.

An example is a tropical kingbird, which was found over a week ago in a place called World's End in the town of Hingham on Massachusetts Bay southeast of Boston. The day after it was reported, at least fifty birders traveled to re-find it in the cold and mist on this beautiful peninsula of fields and woods preserved by the Trustees of Reservations.

That next day, close-up photos of this very individual bird were available on the internet, and soon even audio recordings of it calling. This was partly to help confirm the identity of this species, which is common in Central America, but almost never is found north of south Texas and Arizona. It is the first time a tropical kingbird was ever seen in Massachusetts.

I had seen this species before in Mexico and Arizona, but viewing it perched on the tops of wilting weeds in a cold New England meadow added an extra element of amazement. This small bundle of colorful tropical life had come so far on such delicate feathers.

The final touch on its feat-of-flight and its will to live, was how this wild and exotic bird fed itself on bugs and wasps hiding in the dying grass. The thrill for us was not just because it was a unique, once in a lifetime experience, but that we were witness to the perseverance of live itself.