The Westerns that nest in the Washington Blue Mountain region and in the
Palouse are closest to Rocky Mountain cordilleran but still show
intermediate song feature. The alleged call note distinction is useless
for identification as we have recorded individuals in that area that
alternate between "cordilleran" and "Pacific slope" type call notes.

Gene Hunn.

On Wed, 7 Feb 1996, Raymond Korpi wrote:

> On Wed, 7 Feb 1996, Eugene Hunn wrote:
>
> > The Western Flycatcher split however is widely disputed by knowledgeable
> > observers. The split is poorly justified and based on inadequate data.
> > A cline in vocal parameters can be shown to exist across the northern
> > tier of Washington counties and the southern margin of British Columbia
> > that bridges the "gap" presumed to exist between the types.
>
> A similar controversy on this bird exists in Oregon. Very few true
> Cordillerans are found in eastern Oregon from what I understand, and this
> topic has come up on OBOL. Atlas data from the first year of the Oregon
> project is being treated as "Western" though we still have the data
> separate. Also, the Birds of Oregon text by Gilligan et al treats
> "western" as a lump still noting the problems. Most of the birds I saw
> while I was in Pullman never called, so I was never sure what to call them.
> BTW, now that I'm thinking about it, since I've seen Buillock's
> Baltimore and had a hybrid in hand in Nebraska, do I get to count three
> when the checklist comes out? :) Better go back to class now. RK
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ray Korpi "Life is a smorgasbord--
> Hm: Portland, OR you decide whether or not you
> Wk: Clark College make yourself sick" --k.d. lang
> Vancouver, WA (the more accurate transcription)
> rkorpi at clark.edu
>
>