Hi Tweeters,

Early Sunday morning, I saw a new bird for my Gig Harbor backyard -
small, greenish-gray, lighter below, yellow eye-ring and tiny pointed
beak. It looks like a photo I found online of a Pacific Slope
flycatcher except that the eye-ring was a definite yellow. I assume it
must be a Pacific Slope flycatcher because of its location and its
tiny bill being a juvenile characteristic as it wouldn't likely be a
Least flycatcher here in Puget Sound.

Also, its behavior seemed strange. First, it was not afraid of me. I
was filling the lower bowl of a water fountain when I saw there was a
bird in the upper bowl at about kitchen table height. I would never
have approached the fountain if a bird were there so I was the more
surprised of the two of us. I stood quietly, continuing to allow water
to flow from the hose so as not to startle the bird, which didn't seem
at all startled. Instead, it stood at the edge of the water and took
several long drinks. Second strange behavior: it seemed to be calling
in threes, beak open, open, open... but no sound came out. Then it
would "call" again - open, open, open - however, it was totally
silent. Was it posturing for food from a non-existent parent (or me?),
or could its pitch be above normal human hearing? Other than it sipped
water tipping its head carefully sideways from the very edge of the
pool, and it wasn't afraid, AND it didn't make a noise when apparently
calling, it seemed "fine."

The bird continued to sip water for several minutes, with the beak-
opening behavior in between sips... then flew into the lower branches
of a crabapple and disappeared.

Had to laugh at myself when I learned the definitive identification of
flycatchers is mainly the sound of its call and "mine" is silent. (See
note below for one reference.) I have to wonder... is not being able
to sing fatal for birds?


Patty Kennedy
Gig Harbor, WA




> Western Flycatcher Vocalizations A COMPARISON OF MAJOR SOUNDS OF THE
> WESTERN FLYCATCHER COMPLEX IN NORTH AMERICA Arch McCallum, Ph.D.
> Applied Bioacoustics P. O. Box 51063. Eugene, OR 97405 ...www.appliedbioacoustics.com/research/wefl/
>
> The Cordilleran Flycatcher (Empidonax occidentalis) and the Pacific-
> slope Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis) are sibling species that are
> extremely difficult to distinguish in the field. Vocalizations are
> the only consistent means of distinguishing the two forms out of the
> hand, and even they are problematic. Since the two species were
> split from the former Western Flycatcher (E. difficilis) (American
> Ornithologists' Union 1989), many birders have complained that the
> purportedly diagnostic sounds are not distinguishable, and others
> have reported bilingual birds, i.e., single individual birds giving
> sounds these observers took to represent the vocal repertoires of
> both species. Intermediacy of songs in the Pacific Northwest is also
> mentioned often.
>