[TN-Bird] Murfree Spring Wetland - odd [Yellow-bellied?] flycatcher
- From: Daniel Estabrooks <hyla514@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 09:29:23 -0700 (PDT)
8/9/11
Murfree Spring Wetland
Rutherford Co.
With about an hour of free time at my disposal yesterday, I did a quick
run-through of the wetland around the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro, on the
off chance that I might run into something of interest. As it turns out, I did
see an odd flycatcher that was giving a very loud call that sounded a little
bit like the classic "what-cheer" call you'd hear from a cardinal. (The "ch"
sound in the middle was not as pronounced as a cardinal though, if that makes
any sense.) Anyway, I listened to the call for several minutes and ignored it,
assuming that it was just a cardinal.
In any case, I saw the bird for about a minute from the back before it flew
away. It had strong wing bars and generally looked like a pewee, but the
primary projection seemed too short for a pewee and I've never heard a pewee
give a call like that. Upon consultation of a few field guides, I see that
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (a bird I have zero personal experience with) gives a
similar call to what I heard. I'm just curious if anyone has seen
yellow-bellies at the wetland before and/or if the timing is even right for a
migrant yellow-belly to be here. I apologize for my ignorance. I'm a western
birder who hasn't quite figured out all the eastern birds that people around
here probably take for granted :-)
Daniel Estabrooks
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