Thick-billed Kingbird!!!

The title says it all!!! Ontario's first ever Thick-billed Kingbird was found last evening at Presqu'ile Provincial Park by Bill Gilmour! Bill et al. watched it go to roost just east of the Calf Pasture last evening, so Brando, Josh and I met up at Hwy 6 and the 401 last evening around 10pm and drove to Mike's place, just north of Belleville.

We decided it would be best to arrive before first light, so we were up at 4:45am this morning, out the door by 5:15 and on site at 6am! Around 6:25 this morning, the Kingbird woke up, and announced its presence, and everyone was very satisfied! This is an absolutely remarkable bird to be seen in Ontario. I was reminiscing how 2 winters ago, when Mike, my Dad and I were southern California we twitched one which was wintering in San Diego - needles to say, I never thought I'd be seeing one here in Ontario!

Here are some pics and a short video of the bird (listen for its distinctive call note):

 

 

Attached below is print screen shot of the distribution for this species from eBird.

Pretty impressive!

From what I understand, there are single records from Colorado and British Columbia. The species also seems to be casual in Texas, and California.