Mt. Auburn Cemetery

365 Urban Species. #111: Gray Kingbird

Photo by cottonmanifesto
Urban species #111: Gray kingbird

In Boston you are likely to see a pair of eastern phoebes or eastern kingbirds on any given river or pond. In Antigua we saw gray kingbirds almost everywhere we looked. Most likely this reflected the great density of insect prey available to them. Like other tyrant flycatchers (that's the common name of the bird family Tyrannidae) gray kingbirds perch on a high conspicuous lookout, and make quick flights out to catch insects in the air. Gray kingbirds catch insects from high perches over pastureland, hotel grounds, and the city.

365 Urban Species. #120: Flowering Crabapple

Urban species #120: Flowering crabapple Malus x purpurea

Cherry blossoms get all the good press, but there are other flowering trees in the city. Hybrid varieties of apple have been developed to produce sprays of white or pink flowers that rival their close relatives, the cherries. Crabapples can be distinguished from cherries from their bark: cherries have smooth bark with horizontal dashes (technically called lenticels), while apple trees have rough, flaky bark. Apples and cherries both produce flowers in spring and (more famously) edible fruit in fall; fruit bearing trees such as these provide food for birds such as robins and cedar waxwings, and mammals like squirrels and raccoons.

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