When I was in Texas last month visiting my friend Connie, I didn’t recognize this bird perched on a barbed wire fence as we drove around the Bolivar Peninsula. My Sibley Guide to Birds identified it is an Eastern Kingbird. We saw several that day, all perching on barbed wire. Because its breast feathers obscure its feet, this bird looks as if it is skewered on the barbed wire. I try to pay attention to backgrounds so that a branch or pole doesn’t appear to be protruding from a head but this was hard to avoid. I’m not sure which is worse, the skewered effect or the fact that the bird is near the left edge, leaning toward the left, and looking out of the frame.
