On 17 November Tina Green discovered an ABA Code-3 Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savanna) at Cove Island Park in Stamford, Connecticut.
Fork-tailed and Scissor-tailed flycatchers have long been thought to be each other’s closest relative based on their long tail streamers, but their affinity is not supported by molecular-sequence data. Fork-tailed is now thought to be most closely related to Couch’s and White-throated kingbirds. The yellow coronal patch, typical on kingbirds, is difficult to see except when it becomes prominently displayed during courtship flights. During winter and in migration, Fork-tailed Flycatchers occur in large harmonious flocks, but they become very aggressive on their breeding grounds where males use their long outer tail feathers in spectacular spiral displays (HBW, Vol. 9).
Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a tropical species known for it far-ranging migrations. Some subspecies are sedentary but the nominate, T. s. savanna, is an austral migrant in northern South America wintering north to Central America and the West Indies while T. s. monachus from southern Mexico and Central America is mostly resident, but it has wintered south to northern South America. Most (all?) ABA records are of birds of the nominate race and they are usually immatures with shorter tails. Fork-tailed Flycatcher could appear in almost any part of North America, although the majority of records occur in the eastern regions.