Sighting of rare bird has Texas city watching out for colorful ‘tyrant,’ photos show
_fitted.png "The bird kept returning to a specific dumpster in Corpus Christi, which drew a crowd of bird watchers to the site.")
A little bird with an imposing name and bright feathers is drawing crowds to a coastal Texas city to catch a glimpse, photos show.
Recently, the Latin American bird, called a cattle tyrant, was spotted in Corpus Christi — and locals and visitors have been keeping an eye out for the rare visitor since.
“The Cattle Tyrant has been hanging around the downtown area and is rarely seen in North America,” Visit Corpus Christi said in a Nov. 13 Facebook post. “Coast in and see if you can spot this bird downtown!”
Bird enthusiasts and some wildlife officials say this is the first recorded sighting of a cattle tyrant in the U.S., and the first time the species has been seen north of Panama.
Not unlike the cattle tyrant, some bird watchers made their way to Corpus Christi from far away, KIII reported.
“Yesterday I was in West Texas, Alpine,” Liam Wolff told the outlet. “I had just proposed to my girlfriend and we were coming back, I got the news, we had to see the bird.”
Despite its relatively small size, the cattle tyrant shouldn’t be too hard to spot. The bird is covered mostly in canary-yellow feathers, with wings tinged gray and a bandit-like band of black across its eyes, photos show.
Many shared their sightings on Facebook, capturing pictures of the bird on rooftops, ledges and sidewalks, and a particular dumpster it seems to be fond of — which in turn attracted a large group of bird watchers, eagerly waiting for the tyrant’s return to the trash.
“Fortunately, it was present this morning, dumpster diving in Corpus Christi shortly after I arrived,” Laura Keene said in a post, sharing a photo of the tyrant perched atop the dumpster. “I’ve seen this species before in South America (Colombia), and it is very far from home!”
When they’re not feasting on scraps, the species is better known for following around cattle, even landing on their backs while feeding on nearby insects, experts say. They also do cattle a favor by eating parasites that have latched onto them.
Though it’s unknown how the cattle tyrant came to Texas, some bird enthusiasts suggest it may have hitched a ride on a ship from South America, comments read.
Corpus Christi is roughly 130 miles southeast of San Antonio.
This story was originally published November 15, 2023 at 9:37 AM with the headline "Sighting of rare bird has Texas city watching out for colorful ‘tyrant,’ photos show."