Tuesday, August 7, 2001

Kiskadee is slowly moving northward

File photo

The great kiskadee is a little larger than a loggerhead shrike, with a heavy body and large, black and white striped head.

A good article on the colorful great kiskadee appeared in a recent issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. The issue was designed to please birders - especially those of us who do not enjoy the magazine's over-emphasis on hunting.
   The beautiful, informative article almost made me want to reinstate my subscription.
   I would have missed it, except my neighbor, Gene Haralson, saw a copy in a doctor's office and begged it to bring to me. He asked that I return it so that he could send it to his niece, also a birder. When I had read it, examined the fine pictures, and looked to see who had done them and the excellent text, I called the magazine's office and ordered a copy.
   An article by Kay Charter detailed the life and Texas career of the great kiskadee.
   "The population of this colorful, adaptable species," she wrote, "not only has expanded throughout its historic range, but the evidence indicates that it is also moving slowly northward."
   She described an unforgettable early sighting in the Rio Grande Valley by David Blankenship.
   The size of this bird, as well as its bright coloring and the fact that Blankenship was not familiar with it attracted his attention.
   The great kiskadee is a little larger than a loggerhead shrike, with a heavy body and large, black and white striped head. Its breast and underwings are bright lemon-yellow, contrasting with rusty brown back and upper parts.
   It is a tropical member of the flycatcher family. Its diet includes aquatic delicacies such as small fish and tadpoles, which it acquires, kingfisher-like, by diving into small streams or pools from a low, overhanging branch. Its noisy call includes a loud declaration, "kiskadeeee!" from which it gets its name.
   The bird builds a large, globular nest of about a foot in diameter. These are placed in trees at least 6 feet above the ground. They are closely woven and can shed rain. Pairs bond for life and cooperate in nest building and young rearing.
   There is almost always a pair of them in the vicinity of Hazel Bazemore Park. Listen for their calls.
  
   Corpus Christi resident Phyllis Yochem has studied birds in Texas since 1960.
  
  

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Phyllis Yochem, a Corpus Christi resident, has studied birds in Texas since 1960.

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