Thick-billed Kingbird

[Peter Gent]

All,

About 30 birders were made very happy this morning when the Thick-billed Kingbird showed up at the usual location near Mack at about 10:25, and gave us all extended wonderful views.  There were a number of well-known birders there from all up and down the front range, but it was good to see several local birders as well.  These included Linda Chittum and Ada Jones, who we should all thank for finding this bird and letting others know. They have been keeping tabs on the bird for a number of days now in order to help other birders see it.

This is the 4th documented occurrence of this species in Colorado.  The first 3 are listed at  https://cobrc.org/Reports/SpeciesDetail.aspx?id=284  Note that the 3rd sighting was very close to this location in north Grand Junction in December 2018. The birds in the first 3 sightings did not hang around long, and were only seen by a very few people. This is the first sighting where the bird has stayed around, and so has now been seen by a good number of birders.

Cheers,  Peter Gent.

Boulder,  CO.