Kingbird. Daybreak.
Cassin's kingbird / tirano chibiú (Tyrannus vociferans) at San Pedro House, Cochise County, Arizona.
This bird currently has a human name, and not a bird name. Five American birds are named for Pennsylvania lithographer and ornithologist John Cassin, including T. vociferans. As curator of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences he was sent specimens of western birds for taxonomic classification, though he likely never saw any of the birds that are named for him in the wild. He died in 1869 of arsenic poisoning from handling preserved birds.
The American Ornithological Society is (presumably) still planning to re-designate birds that are stuck with names honoring historical figures, though their procrastination and dithering have gone on far too long. Proposed common names for this bird include white-cheeked kingbird, and vociferous kingbird, which is my preference. If you ever encounter this bird in the desert grasslands of Arizona its raucous calls are memorably impressive.
