[wisb] Re: Flycatcher ID
- From: "Tom Wood" <tcwood729@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <Wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:23:52 -0500
And thank you Sharon, for being such a good sport about us using your photos
as an "empid" exercise. I don't know what the final resolution
(if any) on this bird will be, but I found the discussion to be useful.
First, it encouraged a review of the field marks of the flycatchers .
Secondly, it was interesting to read what other birders use to identify this
difficult complex, and it perhaps suggests some new methods of field
identification. Also, I realized how differently we see features in a
photograph ( If Claudia hadn't retracted her initial ID, we were only 1
species shy of selecting all 5 Wisconsin empids!), and lastly, it shows the
limited usefulness of photographs to clinch an ID (I suppose if the
photograph had allowed us to count primary tips we all could have nailed it-
but this is the real world). We may not always come to a satisfactory
conclusion, but I think we learn from these discussions.
Thomas Wood, Menomonee Falls, Waukesha County
-----Original Message-----
From: wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Sharon Kennedy
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2012 10:53 PM
To: 'Wisbirdn'
Subject: [wisb] Re: Flycatcher ID
Hi everybody,
As the person responsible for those two fuzzy photos (my apologies!) from
July 20 of what I called a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, I would have weighed
in sooner had I realized how many of you were trying to identify the bird.
So here's what I can tell you. The flycatcher was decidedly yellowish below
and greenish above, with strong wing bars and a conspicuous eye ring. I
thought that it was much too colorful (too yellow below, too green above) to
be a drab Least Flycatcher, which is whitish below and grayish above.
Because I took the two photos in the middle of the day (11:18 and 11:19 AM)
in full sun, the colors are washed out. And then there's the issue of
judging color on a screen, which is never easy, and probably made even worse
if a photo is taken in harsh light.
The bird was flycatching from the old apple trees in my neighbor's yard
adjacent to my driveway, and was perched in an apple tree when I took the
photos. (Arborvitae are in the background.) I see Yellow-bellied
Flycatchers here every year on spring and fall migrations, and nine times
out of ten, they are in my neighbor's old apple orchard. The earliest I've
ever seen one in the fall is August 6. I knew that July 20 was really
early, and that's one reason why I tried to get photos, such as they are!
I did not hear the bird sing.
I ruled out Least at the time, but I never considered Acadian. I'm not that
a good a birder, you know! Kenn Kaufman writes in his Field Guide to
Advanced Birding, page 361, that "it's worth noting that Acadian Flycatcher
has gray legs (not blackish like those of most Empids)." My photo of the
bird looking down to the left appears to show a gray leg. (Nevermind my
caution above about judging color on a screen!) We could forget all the
other field marks and let the leg clinch it! If it was an Acadian, that
would solve some of the problems that have been pointed out with an ID of
Yellow-bellied, such as the elongated rather than compact shape, the
contrast between the pale throat and the darker head (for the
Yellow-bellied, the yellowish throat blends into the olive face), and the
lack of a dusky vest.
Now I know why good birders report a bird like this as an Empid, end of
story!
Thank you for all of your input.
Sharon Kennedy
Racine
Racine County
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