Date: 10/10/25 10:04 am From: Louis Bevier <lrbevier...> Subject: [Maine-birds] Tropical Kingbird, Scott’s Landing Preserve, Deer Isle 9-10 Oct
Yesterday, John Thompson photographed a yellow-bellied kingbird at Scott’s Landing Preserve at the northernmost tip of Deer Isle (https://ebird.org/hotspot/L601522). The bird was briefly entered as a Western Kingbird without photos, then updated to Tropical Kingbird with photos, but later returned to Western Kingbird by the observer.
Photos clearly showed a Tropical/Couch’s Kingbird based on the short primary projection, brownish tail with shallow notch, bright yellow underparts, and greenish breast contrasting with whitish throat. Based on that, the search was on.
Today, 10 October, Zach Holderby and others relocated the bird in the same area around the parking lot for the preserve (see map at above link). Zach was able to record the voice, which he and others say sounds like the twittering calls of Tropical Kingbird, a first for Hancock County and the fifth record of this species for Maine.
Maine has a special place in the history of vagrancy by Tropical Kingbirds north of Mexico. The first United States record, and first to establish long-distance vagrancy in the species, was a bird present and then collected at Scarborough, Cumberland Co., 30-31 October 1915 (Norton 1916). As are many of the fall records of this species north into the West and to the Northeast, the origin is from populations that breed in from the southern border of the United States south through Middle America. The Maine bird was ascribed to the subspecies Tyrannus melancholicus satrapa of Middle America, but it is not certain that a west Mexican origin is excluded, those being T. m. occidentalis. The Maine Bird Records Committee accepted this first record in our 11th report (Persons et al. 2022).
Last summer, Maine had a long-staying Tropical Kingbird that went through molt and showed characters of the South American subspecies, T. m. melancholicus, the southern populations of which are long-distance migrants that fly to northern South America for the Austral winter. That is, they are headed north at the beginning of our summer. It appears that several summer records to the Northeast are likely of this origin. The summer 2024 record was discussed in the Maine Bird Records Committee 14th report (Bevier and Persons 2025).
Separation of Couch’s Kingbird is still to be pursued for these birds, and there are several records of Tropical/Couch’s Kingbirds to the Northeast. For accepted records of Couch’s Kingbirds, a recording of the calls is the best. With excellent photos, it is possible to eliminate one or the other species by bill length, primary projection beyond tertials, and primary spacing (similar to how Alder and Willow Flycatchers might be told apart without voice). Records of Couch’s Kingbirds to the East and Northeast are mostly late fall into winter. But there is an early September record of Couch’s for Massachusetts (7 September 2001). There is also a 15 October 1997 report of Couch’s for Nova Scotia at Cape Sable Island, where two observers reported hearing calls matching that species (McLaren 2012).
One last identification issue: these kingbirds hybridized with each other in a narrow area but also with other highly migratory Tyrannus, such as Scissor-tailed and Fork-tailed. There are two November records to the Northeast of Tropical x Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (New York and New Hampshire); so one also needs to be aware of that identification pitfall.
Almost 30 years ago, Steve Mlodinow put together a comprehensive summary of Tropical Kingbird records north of Mexico, and discussed some of the then known vagrant Couch’s Kingbirds (Mlodinow 1998).
