While I was watching what turned out to be the Willow Flycatcher yesterday,
my heart sank when I saw that it had a yellow wash on its stomach. All of
the other field marks looked good, but when I had looked at pics earlier in
the day they had shown a white stomach; not yellow. I took down notes about
the flycatcher and, when I got home, turned to my trusted Field Guide to
Advanced Birding (2011) by Ken Kaufman and read the following:
"All Empids have yellow bellies when they are in fresh plumage. The
brightness of the yellow varies with season and age more than it does
according to species. It may be useful to note the intensity of the yellow
on the belly as one clue to the freshness of the plumage."
It was an epiphany! I have read this chapter before, but I had no
recollection of this statement (how did he sneak it in there between
readings?! ;). It's a good reminder to not rely too heavily on the color of
the stomach or wing bars when it comes to IDing Empids since they both
change as the plumage wears or is replaced.
Flycatching season is upon us, and will be again in the fall. I have
attached eBird charts of the frequency of flycatcher sightings in Lubbock
Co and a link to a pdf of the full flycatcher chapter from the book
mentioned above. I will leave it in my Google Drive until the end of May.
Quick plug: I really enjoy and recommend this book!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yYmiuB6g8ptziu_yzB0aIN0Amh0Gr7Hq/view?usp=sharing
and here is a link to eBird's Lubbock bar charts for all of our birds:
https://ebird.org/barchart?byr=1900&eyr=2020&bmo=1&emo=12&r=US-TX-303
Jennifer
--
Jennifer Miller
Lubbock, TX
(o,o)
/)_)
" "
Blog - http://foundnature.weebly.com/index.html
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