Western Kingbird

After mating the female lays between three and five creamy white , pinkish, marked with browns, gray, lavender spots, colored eggs between the months of April and July about one inch long. She sits on the eggs for about three weeks and the young birds fledge about three weeks later. Sometimes more than one pair of birds will build their nest in the same location making them somewhat social. When birds like a hawk, crow or raven flies to close to the nest the Western Kingbird will attack these larger birds, especially hawks.

Their diet consists mainly of insects and supplemented with fruit like berries. Often they will sway forward or backward on a wire or tall weed to catch insects in midair. The voice of the Western Kingbird is a sharp call.

Because of deforestation the bird received benefits like more insects available making the bird's clutches bigger and the young birds feed more often and grow bigger, quicker. . The Western Kingbird is similar to Cassin's Kingbird, Tropical and Couch's Kingbirds.

Before man migrated to Texas the Western Kingbird's range was limited before trees and bushes were planted. Earlier the bird only inhabited the western part of the state's Panhandle, southern plains, and the mountains.

Then man planted trees on the plains, erected power lines, telephone poles, and other structures causing the Western Kingbird's population to increase throughout most of its Texas range,

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