Subject: [Tweeters] Re: flycatcher ID help
Date: Apr 29 19:16:54 2010
From: Charlie Wright - c.wright7 at comcast.net


Hi Sherry,
You are correct on the marks you observed which differ from a Pacific-slope Flycatcher, which is well illustrated by the contrast with the first photo on your website. Pac-slopes in the spring are vibrant green on the crown (which is often raised in a somewhat ragged semi-crest) and suffused with yellow-green through the breast. This bird is gray-green on the crown, gray-white on the throat and upper breast, and creamy-yellow on the lower belly. For regular westside species, this pretty much leaves us with Hammond's Flycatcher, but because of the time of year, we still have to entertain the possibility of an uncommon Dusky or very rare Gray Flycatcher.

Gray Flycatcher is ruled out pretty quickly by the bill, which is much too small here and doesn't show enough yellow "blaze" on the lower mandible. This bird is also a bit more colorful on the back than is generally expected in Gray.

Dusky is nearly always the most challenging one to separate from a Hammond's Flycatcher. Here you really have to look at the primaries. Dusky is short-winged and shows even spacing of the primaries, while Hammond's has longer primary projection and often a noticeable "gap" or two in the spacing. This Steigerwald bird seems to show a very reasonable primary projection for a Hammond's, in my opinion. The bill shape is variable in Hammond's, but averages narrower-based and relatively tack-like for an empid. I believe the bill in your photos lines up with this ID, as well.

For comparison, here are some good ID photos from the web:
Hammonds: http://tinyurl.com/29csfn7
Dusky: http://tinyurl.com/2e2sago

Cheers and good birding,
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington