Howdy folks. In the days between the end of the haunt event and the fast approaching ultra-race, I’ve been doing my best to get a few body nags healed up and hopefully not add any new dings to pile. Last year I managed to injure my back putting all the decorations back right before the race. Lesson learned, I took the effort to get everything out of the valley and into the out building and left it to hang out there until post run. The run is hard enough as it is without piling on additional difficulty. With all the extra rest I’ve been able to get a lot of miscellaneous to-dos checked off starting with the bird counts. Updated both the Average Year stats (link here) and the life list. AY sits at 307 (two finds still have to be added to our tracking list) and as you will see on the left nav bar my lifelist is now at 432 (it may look like 430, but it is really 432 thanks to a couple of late adds ha). And one of those late adds and missing tracking species in our AY spreadsheet happens to be today’s featured feathered friend.
Hit the jump to find out more about this lost barnyard resident.
In addition to all the other organization (read non-physical) related accomplishments this week, I was able to get all the directories and galleries set up to finally start processing the 2024 tins. I know, I know, I’m waaay behind as usual – this retirement life is damn hectic hehehe. The main point is I can start processing and releasing more current finds like this yellow beauty here.
This member of the Tyrannidae family is the only member of its genus Machetornis which stands for “fighter bird” in Ancient Greek (link here). Its given Latin species name, Rixosa, is ‘quarrelsome’ which implies this bird is the Honey Badger of the birding world (link here – if you don’t laugh at that video you are dead inside or beaten numb by political pundits this late in the election cycle!). The reddish hue in their eye fits the supposed aggressive disposition of this Flycatcher, but that aggressive Latin naming really doesn’t translate well into its more common name, the Cattle Tyrant.
In my research (Cornell, Wikipedia, etc.) I did find that their name is “a reference to its pugnacious [behavior] and habit of dispossessing other species of their nests”. For the record, I did have to look up the word pugnacious and now have to use it in three more sentences before the end of day – let’s hope Linda thinks it means something nice ha (link here).
Now for the really interesting part of the story. You will not find this entry in the standard Cornell birding site – also the reason it is not in our Average Year tracking spreadsheet. The mystery lies in the fact it is not a North American bird, rather a visitor from South America. The Cattle Tyrant calls home the most northern countries in the south (Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador) and then a large swath through Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. Let’s just say not normally found in downtown Corpus Christi where this wayward specimen was located.
Back in December 2023, reports started coming out of south Texas regarding a rarity that had shown up in Corpus Christi. At first I did not pay much attention to it as we had already committed to switching our usual snowbirding destination from Texas to Arizona. News continued to build and after tracking down some additional reports, found out this was the first time this species had been spotted in the US (link here). Like the Bat Falcon (link here), the birding community was very excited and birders across the country were flocking down to get a view. Figured there was no way this rarity was going to remain there until we made our way back from Arizona and put it out of mind.
As you can tell, that was an incorrect assessment. After a rather forgettable January in Arizona, we decided to make a spring run back to Texas. A quick check of the eBird reports brought a complete surprise as it was STILL hanging out in downtown Corpus Christi. Made a note as that city is always in our Texas adventures. Oftentimes more of a pass through to get to Port Aransas or South Padre Island depending on our direction of travel. In our stops leading up to that area, we were meeting fellow birders who relayed that the Cattle Tyrant was still there and “was the easiest rarity check they had ever had” due to its rather localized residency.
We were repeatedly told to find the “blue trash bin” at the heart of downtown Christi. That ended up being a bit more difficult than expected as we had to navigate a series of one-ways and quite frankly, there looked to be more than one blue trash bin in the area. Eventually we found ourselves at the back of an oyster restaurant (if I remember correctly, it was called Water Street Oyster Bar). There was indeed a large blue trash bin behind the restaurant in front of their parking lot. Did a quick scan of the area but unable to spot any yellow Flycatcher specimens. There was an individual (likely one of their cooks) taking a break near the bin. Decided to talk up the local, assuredly, with the flurry of activity he would have some info on its whereabouts.
Me: “Do you happen to know where the rare Cattle Tyrant bird has been spotted around here?”
Him “No”
Me: “Oh, we were told there were lot of people coming down to this area to take a picture of a bird next to a blue trash bin” {as I was pointing to the blue trash bin he was a mere 6 feet from}
Him “Nope”
Either he was new to the job, completely oblivious to activities around him or possibly feeling pugnacious (2 sentences to go) towards me, regardless, this was a fruitless path to continue. Made a few more laps around the parking lot to see if there was anyone else to ask and to check if there were other bins in the area. Eventually went back to the car and reported the bad news to Linda.
Now, my wife is a woman of many talents, but she has a definite super power when it comes to finding rarities based on minimal information. Her gift lies in her ability to triangulate off of relative little information obtained from bits and scraps buried in individual eBird reports. More amazing is her knack for taking images and getting us to that exact spot. She immediately brought up a list of sources and went to work. After a couple traversals down the downtown streets she had brought us to the exact spot where two of the sighting pictures had been made thanks to a couple of murals painted on the buildings and a match on some architectural specifics on the side of the building. Note, were only one block away from our original stop.
Unfortunately, there was no angry yellow Flycatcher to be seen. She even found another blue trash bin. Continued searching that square block, but no luck. We were also expecting to see at least a couple of other birders on the hunt as well that might help on the search. Nobody fit the birder profile, although Linda did locate a successful eBird report from earlier that day. Confirmation it was still there. On one of our loops we had passed the original blue trash bin and there was a nagging notion that there was a yellowish bird barely visible from our roadside angle. As a last ditch effort, had Linda take me back there. “THERE IT IS!!” A Robinish sized yellow bird standing on the edge of the famous blue trash bin looking in all directions for dinner.
Quite brilliant from a bird perspective as these Flycatchers like well .. Flies. Nothing draws Flies better than a pile of restaurant trash! There was still a steep angle from the street which made it difficult to get full bodied shots, but there was no doubt we had found our South American visitor. Also became apparent as to why our rarity was still hanging around – basically catered food two times a day.
I had to chuckle when I saw this next shot while in the digital darkroom.
“Hey idiot employee, the next time someone asks you where I’m at, tell them I am RIGHT HERE and point to this blue trash bin 6 feet away!!!!!”
As some additional background before I let you go, the Cattle Tyrant does have a relationship to their namesake as they will follow behind or catch a ride on the backs of Cattle for extended periods in order to vacuum up any disturbed prey. Very similar behavior as seen in our more common US resident the Cattle Egret (link here). I wonder if I could convince one of these birds to ride on my shoulder during the summer runs to keep those devil spawn Horse Flies off me…note to self, place an add in the Flycatcher want ads. They are very similar to the Tropical/Couch’s Kingbirds that are pervasive in South Texas. Without a specific reason to include this South American resident, I would always opt for those local Kingbirds first – those two pose enough of a headache distinguishing much less throwing in this third out-of-towner.
Although not a very good tin, I decided to include this next shot from an ID perspective. You will notice that the yellow coloring on the neck/breast continues all the way up the underwing which is a nice characteristic of many of the yellow sporting Flycatchers – you do not see that angle very often in reference shots on the web.
In closing, did check on eBird to see if this specimen was still hanging around. From what I can tell, it has moved on as the most recent checklist and photos I could find were from May of this year. A definite nice add to my life list. Can’t wait to see what will show up when we head back to Texas this January.
Now I need to go try out my new word!
Life Intrigued 