I love when a rare bird shows up close to where I live because, in general, I don't spend a lot of effort in chasing rarities. However, when a great find occurs in a place I bird anyway it is easy to chase. This morning I chased the first occurrence of a Tropical Kingbird in Minnesota at Murphy-Hanrahan Park south of Minneapolis in Scott County. There is a previous bird up north that was determined to be a Tropical/Couch's Kingbird but never was identified as to species. This bird was heard to vocalize and clinched it's ID as Tropical Kingbird.
These photos were taken at a relatively close distance and I have enlarged them to show a bit more detail. Fortunately we were able to see the bird in the top of a dead sapling and got great views for about 5 minutes.
Several of us watched as the bird flew off the perch and nabbed a meal in the air and then returned
to it's perch.
This shot is of the notched tail with a bit of wear (not easy to see in photo). The bird did not seem to be affected by our presence. It did tend to move around the area quite a bit and there were several Great Crested Flycatchers that were very active in the same vicinity.
The bird has been present in this location for about a week so I think the chances are good it may hang around for a bit longer. Good bird to chase if you are near the Twin Cities.
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