Hi Tweets,

Tyler writes:

>Large eye-ring tapered at the end
>slight topknot
>lower mandible pinkish orange
>slight yellow wash below, gray above
>loud "seet" note
>bobbed tail a little bit once and flicked wings once

The call note you quote is used by two, maybe three, depending,
Empidonax-genus species, Hammond's Flycatcher E. hammondii and the
'Western'-type Flycatchers, Pacific-slope Flycatcher E. difficilis and
Cordilleran Flycatcher E. occidentalis. Some think that the split of the
latter two from Western Flycatcher E. difficilis may have been unjustified
and needs to be revisited.

The mandible color you describe eliminates Hammond's, small-billed with a
mostly-dusky underside to its mandible.

I can recommend two good sources of information for field-ID of Empidonax
flycatchers: the first is Kenn Kaufman's Advanced Birding, which has an
extensive treatment of Empidonax identification; the second, the new NG3
field guide.

I *know* the first is useful because it helped me: ten years ago I couldn't
tell Empids from Eggs Benny. Their ID is still sometimes a big pain in the
tookus, and I still let a depressingly high number of them go by as 'Empid
sp.', but at least they're not the objects of outright ID terror they used
to be.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net