Subject: [Tweeters] Windust flycatcher maybe a Piratic Flycatcher instead
Date: Sep 7 00:31:10 2008
From: Mike and MerryLynn - m.denny at charter.net
Hello all,
After studying our photos and reading a description of Piratic Flycatcher in "The Birds of the Republic of Panama" by Alexander Wetmore there is the possibility that this bird is a Piratic Flycatcher. The bill length and shape fit Piratic better than Sulphur-bellied. The birds overall size and bill was a point of discussion while in the field observing this bird. RT Petersons Guide to Mexico was not even close to this bird we observed, so we discounted the species until further study. Howells Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America lacks some of the plumage descriptions on the bird we observed. Blakes Birds of Mexico loosely described this bird. Irby Davis does not even mention the species. In the Birds of Columbia by R.M. DE Schauensee there is a short but accurate account to the bird we observed. We have limited experience with this species and have only seen it 3-4 times in Costa Rica in 1996. Please remember when you are out in the field that you should now have a handle on most vagrant Mexican species even as far north as southeast Washington. The old days of casting a brief glance at the Mexican vagrants just before you head off to bird Arizona are now over. The proof is at Windust right now. I wish to thank Steve Mldinow and Charlie Wright for their remarks.
Later Mike Denny
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Mike and MerryLynn Denny
Birding the beautiful Walla Walla Valley
If you have not birded, you have not lived