Hi Tweets,

Lauralee Smith writes:

>I wish I hadn't accidentally deleted that wonderfully detailed
>posting by, I believe, Wayne Weber a few days ago -- the answer
>to this question could have been in it! I'm wondering if there is
>perhaps a different sort of flycatcher, whose call is
>identical to the infamous "quick three beers" of the olive-sided
>flycatcher, but without the "quick" -- in other words, just the
>two notes? Otherwise, the inflection and delivery were identical.

Laurinda, you don't mention the habitat, but I'd think the answer to this
might depend on just where this bird is when it's singing.

Three possibilities come immediately to mind: if from the tops of tall trees
near or at the forest edge, the likely author would be an Olive-sided
Flycatcher Contopus cooperi--as many others have pointed out, it sometimes
drops the initial note; if at or very near ground-level in a low tree or
bush in open areas with plantings, perhaps a California Quail Callipepla
californica, which has some notes and calls somewhat similar in quality; if
in rough pasture with scrubby trees, perhaps Willow Flycatcher singing that
infamous compressed song which, under some conditions of distance and
background noise, can sound surprisingly like the Olive-sided Flycatcher's
last two notes, as you describe them.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net