Eastern Kingbirds are in the family of birds known as tyrant flycatchers. The name kingbird was given to them because of their aggressive nature. They have been known to actually ride on the back of a hawk that has entered their territory, pecking away on the back of their head.
Their diet consists mainly of insects caught in flight, which is why they are called flycatchers. Notice the white margin on the tail which is a good field marking. They are about the size of a robin.
There is a place on the Patuxent where I will occasionally set up my camera that has a tree near it that you wouldn't look at twice. It is actually a jumble of a couple of different trees that appear to be one and a couple of vines thrown in for good measure. One of the trees is a mulberry. One day I noticed a kingbird eating mulberries and trained my lens on it since there wasn't anything going on with the water birds. The bird plucked a mulberry and the stem was facing toward it. Somehow, I knew what it was getting ready to do and took the picture just as it flipped it around to get the stem facing out. Don't ask me how I knew it was going to do this. I could just sense it.
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