For reasons I don’t understand, kingbirds have chosen to nest on one of the high voltage towers out at the arboretum. The sound of the electricity crackling across the wires is audible from a fair distance. Never mind that the sound of sizzling is loud up there where they are nesting, being that close to high voltage electricity I imagine is not good for their health and the health of their babies. On top of that, I feel like those metal beams would heat up pretty hot in the noon day, summer sun. Again, I can’t believe that this would be an attractive site for them to nest. Trying to put a positive spin on it, I thought that they certainly won’t have to worry about ground predators like snakes and squirrels. Also the view is probably nice from up there and that will come in handy to detect and chase off predatory birds such as owls, ravens, crows and hawks that are in the area. It also looks fun as they dive off the tower and glide down to the hillside to forage.
They have a light gray head and a white breast that fades into a yellow wash on their bellies. They have a stout bill and a black tail with outer tail feathers.
They are a beautiful bird to observe and they love the open landscape of the east side of Mount Pisgah. I see them perching on top of brush piles and on dead limbs of shrubs like buckbrush. They are mainly insectivores and they will use these perches to forage by hawking insects out of the air or flying down to the ground.
Listen for their vocalizations. Peterson describes their voice as “shrill, bickering calls; a sharp kip or whit-ker-whit; dawn song pit-PEE-tu-whee.” I feel like Peterson always has interesting descriptions of a bird’s songs and calls. Check it out and see what you think.
I hope that you are getting in some birding time this spring. Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there.
Sources
Peterson, Roger Tory. Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), 2010.
Western Kingbird Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Kingbird/overview. Accessed 30 May 2025.