To: obol and tweeters
To: Oregon Birds Records Committee

As mentioned earlier by Alan and Steve the DUSKY-CAPPED FLYCATCHER was
relocated and confirmed by many yesterday 4 January
1996 in Newport, Oregon. I was there and observed photographed and
recorded the bird from about 9:00 to 10:30. The bird was first seen at
about 8:30 by Jeff Gilligan, Sheran Jones, Owen Schmidt, and Richard Smith.

DIRECTIONS: Turn west off US Hwy 101 onto 6th street in Newport
and go a few blocks and park on 6th between Nye and Lee streets or
thereabouts. The bird is covering quite a bit of territory in the
general area. I saw the bird within an area borderd by the street on or
two blocks east of Nye to the east, Hurbert to the west, 4th or 5th to
the south and 7th to the north.
Some specific areas where I saw the bird were the gravel road
south of 6th street all alon and working the trees and shrubs along the
bluff above the mobil home park. Also in a wooded gully off of Cotton
street (Avenue?) north of 6th. Look for a pink flowering quince in full
bloom here with a yellow house to the south.
The bird was all over the place though, so keep circulating in
the area if you don't see it right away. It seemed to prefer the
broadleaf deciduous trees (the leafless trees) and would forage from low
to mid heights, but not usually way at the tops of the trees. I saw it
land in conifers only twice and then only briefly. It would not flycatch
like I'm most used to, but would choose a slightly different perch each
time following a foray. Often it would pick things of branches in flight
phoebe style. I found the bird easiest to relocate by call as it was
vocal and we kept losing it.

Calls: Mostlly a plaintive mournful "weeeuur" higher at first and then
lowering and quickly trailing off to a faint indistinct ending.
The second call was kind of a "heeur" similar and maybe the same as
the first call with slight variation. These two calls were given often.
The bird usually calls immediately after landing on a new perch. Both
calls sound very much like the distant call of a Western Gull.
The third call I heard only twice was a "Weee-frrrrrrrrrrrr"
High at first again and then going into a rolling trill (pronouce like a
Spanish rolling r sound) much like the quality and patern of a lightly
blown referee's whistle.
I was able to record all of these calls at least once on my
cassette tape recorder.

Description:
A _Myiarchus_ flycatcher identified as such by its upright
stance, long rounded tail often fanned somewhat, dark upperparts and tail in
the olives and
browns, longish thickish bill similar to an American Robin's in shape,
head with a slight crest or peak near the hind crown,
and grayish throat and upperbreast and yellowish belly and underparts.
This flycatcher was small and thin in body shape. In direct
comparrison with a White-Cowned sparraw it was perhaps slightly shorter
in overall length and certainly 1/2 the body size. The bill was
approximately 3/4 the
lenght of the head and appearred heavy and long relative to itself and
certainly proportionately longer than any Ash-throated Flycatcher that I
have ever seen reminding me of the many Great-crested Flycatcher I have
seen in Massachussettes. The bill was dark brownish black except for
the base of the lower mandible which was orange (the tip was dark). Overall
the head appeared smallish and the body
somewhat slim, the tail long, about the lenght of the body. The head
shape was rounded in the forehead and peaked towards the hindcrown looking
triangular or squarrish depending on the angle of the crown feathers.
The head was darkish brownish black on the crown, darker here
than any of the birds other plumage. This extended down the face to
encompass the black eye. Below the dark crest this color became drab
olive green with noticable difference from the darker crown color though
there was no sharp contrast. The dark olive continues down the back to
the uppertail coverts which are blacker with reddish rust edgings. The
retrices are wholly dark brownish black with only thin reddish edgings
with
the terminus slightly smoky gray making an indstinctive light gray
terminal edge to the tail. The edgings at the base of the tail feathers
appeared to have wider rusty edgings making the tail look fairly rufous
at the basal portion.
The birds wings are also darkish, but with much rusty rufous
edgings on the primaries and outer secondaries. Two buffy rust wing bars
are formed by the edges of the greater and median wing coverts. The
tertials are edged boldly in smokey gray.
The throat sides of the neck is light gray darkening as distally
towards the belly. The belly and undertail coverts are an opaque bright
lemon-yellow. Between the yellow of the upperbelly and the gray of the
breast is a slightly contrasting obviously darker indistinct band of
blackish-blue gray.
Though I have no experience with species previously, I believe this to
be Dusky-capped Flycatcher first on the
basis of its calls which sound exactly like the calls on the National
Geographic Societie _A Field Guide to the Bird Songs of North America_
tapes of this species and not at all like the calls of Ash-throated
Flycatcher or Great-crested Flycatcher of which I am aware. Secondly on
its shape and plumage. The
proportionatedly longish heavy looking bill, buffy wingbars, tail patern
of wholly dark retrices with rust only on the edges, and the darker gray
of the lower breast- upperbelly and the deep yellow of the lower belly and
underparts and small size are all consistant with this species. The
phoebe style foraging behavior displayed by this bird is also consistant
with the literature for Dusky-capped and unlike the other North American
_Myiarchus_ flycatchers.

Photographs and Recordings pending.

Respectfully yours,

David
--
David Bailey, psu03321 at odin.cc.pdx.edu
2867 NE Hamblet Street
Portland, OR 97212-1657