The hybrid kingbird at Sandusky, originally found on Saturday Dec. 8 by Al Freeman, was seen by many observers today, Sunday the 9th. The identification is still unknown, but the bird undoubtedly has some ancestry of Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and some ancestry of one of the yellow-bellied kingbirds (with Western and Couch's specifically under discussion). This morning it was not seen at all during the first hour and a half of daylight, but after that it was moving around the edges of open short-grass fields and wooded areas in a neighborhood just west of Pipe Creek Wildlife Area. On the accompanying Google Map, I've put some markers to show the main areas where the bird was spending its time:
http://goo.gl/maps/kIkz0


If for some reason you can't access the map, the area is between the Cedar Point causeway and the Pipe Creek parking lot on the northeast side of Sandusky, mostly south of 1st Street and west of F Street.


The bird would perch quietly for minutes at a time, usually at the edge of a wooded area. When foraging, it would usually fly out and hover low over the ground, often calling as it did so. The only callnote that we heard during the morning was a strident single note, recognizably similar to the "kip" of a Western Kingbird but more drawn out and with a harsher tone quality. I only succeeded in getting very poor recordings of the voice, but I'm hopeful that someone else may have gotten better audio later in the day.


Although this isn't a full species and won't "count" for anyone's list, I'd say it's one of the most interesting birds I've seen in Ohio! Vagrant kingbirds found late in fall in other parts of North America often have stayed around for several days, so perhaps this bird will do the same; weather forecasts for the next few days don't look too severe.


Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio






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