Fall Empids in Panama (1 Viewer)

They're here....!
I finally got good views of an Empidonax Flycatcher today. This is my third sighting of one this season. I hope they come in the numbers I saw last fall.
I was able to take a few mediocre photos and a crappy video. It made no call and other than call it a Traill's, I am unable to ID. Alder is supposed to have a shorter bill than Willow and this one seems longish to me; but Alder is supposed to have a more distinct eye ring and this bird shows more than some I have seen. There seems to be a curved culmen. I've never noticed that before and I didn't notice it in the field today--only when I put up the photos. Trick of the photo? The lores seem to meld together over the bill; never seen that before either. Most of the time I have only noticed a light 'comma' on the lores. I have cropped and sharpened the photo that shows these points best: #2. I wonder if one may have a little more curvature than the other?
When I got back to Peregrine and downloaded my photos, I was struck by how worn the wing feathers were; ragged at the edges. I felt empathy for the poor little thing. By the look on the range maps, if it is an Alder, it might have come all the way from Alaska! It's so small and that is such a feat. There have been times out on the ocean when weather and big seas and lack of sleep and sea sickness has weakened me, and there was nothing to do but continue on with all I had. Yet my longest crossing is nothing compared to what this little flycatcher has accomplished. It truly is amazing.
As long as I am drawing comparisons, I should mention that many times I have questioned my intelligence and sanity for going around the world in a small boat and I have to wonder why in the world birds migrate. There is plenty of food here year round for most of the migrating species. Why wouldn't they just stay in Central and South America? I realize the boreal forests in Canada are spectacular, but are they that good? It just seems so crazy.
I'm really happy to see these birds arrive and I look forward to finding and watching them over the next few months. I'm not sure why I've developed this almost obsessive attraction to the empids, but I'm captivated.

Yes, one of the two! Might be an Alder because it looks slightly greenish but who knows? I had one the other day that actually sang and called in the highlands of Costa Rica but Willows are also passing through- had some of those down on the coast (also calling).

Yes, at first glance, it would seem that such long migrations are sort of..ridiculous but they didnt evolve for nothing. I am not up to date on migration hypotheses but I believe that birds like flycatchers are generally believed to have evolved migration to take advantage of a brief yet highly productive temperate zone summer where there may have also been little competition. At least a few species of migrants apparently breed en route, and then there are the birds whose migrations might be relict behaviors from another era- intertropical migrants like Sulphur-bellied and Piratic flycatchers and Swallow-tailed Kite.

Whatever the reason for migration, I hope you record more of the Panamanian migrants and post your findings on Bird Forum!

SueO said:

Alder is supposed to have a shorter bill than Willow and this one seems longish to me;

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Probably best to erase this thought from your memory. That is not a useful character for separating these species.

Birdingcraft said:

Yes, one of the two! Might be an Alder because it looks slightly greenish but who knows? I had one the other day that actually sang and called in the highlands of Costa Rica but Willows are also passing through- had some of those down on the coast (also calling).

Whatever the reason for migration, I hope you record more of the Panamanian migrants and post your findings on Bird Forum!

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Thanks, Patrick. It's interesting that you heard the Alder call. I remember last fall when I had such a hard time trying to ID the Traill's that you and Carlos (Florida) both commented that the Alder called during fall migration after I mentioned reading that Alder does not call on the southward migration, but does on the northward migration (but Willow does--and also in its winter territory). Coming into this year's fall migration, I am in the school that, at least here, this is true. I only have two migrations to base anything on and this was an aspect I wanted to focus on this fall. I never heard a peep out of them last fall, and I saw them quite often; but they did vocalize in the spring and I was able to ID both the Alder and the Willow. My ears are better than my eyes and I am going to listen! If they call in CR, they must surely call here and I just missed it last fall. It's too bad I won't have another year here.
Regarding the color--I'm posting another photo of the bird on another perch with different lighting.:-O
Sue
Sue

jaco said:

Probably best to erase this thought from your memory. That is not a useful character for separating these species.

Click to expand...

Will do.
I really don't use anything but calls to ID, but I do like to note what physical differences there might be. I have done a bit of reading on these two and have come across blogs, etc where birders seem to be very confident in their ability to differentiate and point out why. I'm not in that league, but I wonder if their movements might be read. The one I think of as Alder seems to always be low, and is constantly rotating his scrunched down head left and right and looking up. Unfortunately, the Alder and the Willow are thought to both have the same behaviour down here. I would like to know if and what differences they show on their breeding grounds. I have seen aggressive behaviour to other empids here. Several times I have seen them dive bomb and even have aerial combat with each other. I don't know if the adversaries were different Empid species or not. Once, I had my bins on one just hanging out on a chain link fence and bam! Another empid knocked him off! That was the aerial incident--they tumbled together to the ground and one flew off with the other still in pursuit.