Subject: Re: yellowish flycatchers
Date: Sep 12 13:56:31 1996
From: Ghstout at aol.com - Ghstout at aol.com


To raise a different thread about these yellowish flycatchers, yesterday we
saw in the low shrubbery about our bird bath and then bathing in the bath a
small bird that I first took to be an empid - yellowish breast and belly but
with a whitish (grayish?) throat that was clearly distinguishable from the
adjacent breast, two whitish rather than buff wingbars, PERHAPS a darker area
between the wing bars, olive back, elongated white eyering, smallish dark
bill (including lower mandable although perhaps pinkish along its upper
edges), and a remarkably flat head with no hint of a peak or crest, some, but
not a lot of wing shivering. My first thought was that it might be a
wandering Hammond's (Dusky?) since it differed in a number of respects from
the Pacific Slopes that we have been seeing during the late summer. but I was
troubled by the head shape and the fact that it seemed to sit flatter on the
branches than the upright stance of flycatchers. Thus I began to wonder if I
was being fooled by a Hutton's vireo, which are reasonably common here at
times.

Is this a reasonable question, or have I missed something obvious? Does
anyone have a similar experience to admit to, or a helpful suggestion?

George H. Stout
Gig Harbor, WA