RBA: Northern Idaho / Eastern Washington / Northeastern Oregon
says:

(snip)
>a pair of singing LEAST
>FLYCATCHERS near Rose Lake, Idaho. This is only the 5th record
>for the state... and were only
>seen by bush-wacking into the interior of the aspen-cottonwood
>stand, where it's more open.
(snip)
>5-8 SORA...responded enthusiastically to a single playing of
>their song.

Just curious, but aren't birds establishing territory &/or nest-building
quite sensitive to disturbance such as people bushwhacking and tape-playing
around the site during nestbuilding and breeding periods?

Here in Vancouver BC, I try on our Bird Alert to caution our birders to the
risks of potential disturbance of rare birds such as LEFL, particularly--as
in your instance--when they seem to be in the early stages of extending
their breeding range into the area. I encourage our birders to stay on
trails, and to *not* play tapes in hope of eliciting agitatedly aggressive
(there is nothing "enthusiastic" about their response) responses from
territorial males, and to use telephoto lenses in order to get a 'close-up'
shot.

A bird responding to a tape is:

1. not feeding its young,
2. not defending against cowbirds,
3. *unnecessarily* stressed by our playing of those tapes.

I think it's for these reasons that the American Birding Association and the
Audubon Society both disapprove of any tape-usage, however tempting, during
a bird's breeding season.

In some cases we've had to start suppressing nest site information where
the birds are in vulnerable locations until the young are being fed and we
know the territorial birds will not abandon. Even then, it's difficult when
the word gets out around the local grapevine where exactly the nest is, or
where off-trail the birds are: some local birders, sad to say, are more
concerned with their lists than the welfare of the birds.

Personally, I miss the good ol' days when we didn't have to pay much
attention to anything but getting the best look we could at a rare bird, but
with everything else we're doing to them--deforestation, pesticides,
etc.--taking care not to disturb them when they're either establishing
territory &/or nestbuilding seems an increasingly small price to pay for
helping them survive in an already tough world.

>Cheers

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
michael_price at mindlink.bc.ca