Eastern Kingbird Photos

Photography by Terry Sohl

My Favorite: If it's summer, if you have a barbed wire fence, and there's any grassy habitat around at all (even if it's just the ditch), you've got a good chance of seeing an Eastern Kingbird. Seeing that trademark white-tipped tail on a bird sitting on a fence line is a true hallmark of summer in eastern South Dakota. We have both Eastern and Western Kingbirds throughout South Dakota, but in the southeastern part of the state where I live, it's these guys that you see the most. The "favorite" photo below is from Newton Hills State Park in South Dakota.

Eastern Kingbird - Tyrannus tyrannus


Eastern Kingbird 1	Eastern Kingbird 2	Eastern Kingbird 3	Eastern Kingbird 4
May 26th, 2003	June 9th, 2003	July 12th, 2003	May 27th, 2007
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Yankton County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota
View from the backside of a Kingbird on a barbed wire fence	Closeup of Eastern Kingbird head and upper body	Facing view of bird on eastern red cedar with fruit	Vertical of Eastern Kingbird on barbed wire fence

Eastern Kingbird 5	Eastern Kingbird 6	Eastern Kingbird 7	Eastern Kingbird 8
May 27th, 2007	July 4th, 2005	May 10th, 2009	May 10th, 2009
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Fort Pierre National Grasslands, S. Dakota	Big Sioux Recreation Area, South Dakota	Lincoln County, South Dakota
Head-on view of a kingbird on a barbed wire fence	Kingbird with fresh breakfast, on barbed wire fence	Bird perched on the top of a budding spring tree	Backside view of kingbird on a barbed wire fence

Eastern Kingbird 9	Eastern Kingbird 10	Eastern Kingbird 11	Eastern Kingbird 12
May 17th, 2011	July 5th, 2010	July 5th, 2010	May 22nd, 2010
Big Sioux Recreation Area, South Dakota	Badlands National Park, South Dakota	LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge, South Dakota	Big Sioux Recreation Area, South Dakota
Kingbird perched on sumac bush	Over-the-shoulder look at kingbird on barbed wire	Bird perched on the end of a dead branch	Eastern Kingbird perched on tree branch in spring sun

Eastern Kingbird 13	Eastern Kingbird 14	Eastern Kingbird 15	Eastern Kingbird 16
August 13th, 2011	May 12th, 2018	May 8th, 2020	June 3rd, 2017
Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Minnehaha County, South Dakota	Newton Hills State Park, South Dakota
Alert kingbird perched on barbed wire fence	Bird perched just over the water's surface on a cold spring day.	Bird perched on a wire on a sunny spring day	Eastern Kingbird calling from the top of an eastern red cedar tree

Eastern Kingbird 17	Eastern Kingbird 18	Eastern Kingbird 19	Eastern Kingbird 20
June 3rd, 2017	June 3rd, 2017	August 9th, 2020	August 9th, 2020
Newton Hills State Park, South Dakota	Newton Hills State Park, South Dakota	McCook County, South Dakota	McCook County, South Dakota
Bird perched on top of juniper tree on a sunny blue sky day	Kingbird taking flight with tail and wings spreading	Immature Eastern Kingbird perched on a barbed wire fence	Immature Eastern Kingbird perched on a barbed wire fence