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Arizona Wood-Pewee (1 Viewer)

The lower mandible looks too dark (could be the photo, though) to be a Greater Pewee. That being said, I have no experience with Greaters and am not sold on it being a Western either. Any other photos?
 
I took two shots of this bird, both the same. Flew off quickly. If there is a chance that this may be a Greater I can measure (with some difficulty) the twig that it is on. The Greater is bigger and would be a life bird for me. I think I have just talked myself into measuring........
 
Although I can see why someone might say this is a Greater Pewee (e.g. the tufted crest) I'm not really happy with the bill, which seems too short and lacks the pinkish lower mandible of Greater Pewee. That last feature was very conspicuous on the Greater Pewee I saw in Arizona in July.
 
I think the mandible is pale. Notice also the lack of obvious wing-bars. Greater Pewee for me.
 
jmorlan said:
I think the mandible is pale. Notice also the lack of obvious wing-bars. Greater Pewee for me.
Click to expand...

The mandible isn't pale, or at least it doesn't look pale in the photograph aside from a small amount along the gape line. You might infer that this is an effect of the light but I think that requires a bit more work and imagination.

I'm not saying that this bird isn't a Greater Pewee, because it does show a lot of the features of that species, and I'm not confident of it being a Western Wood-pewee either. But I'd struggle to be really sure myself given the appearance of the bill. I'd be hoping for something more like this:
http://www.roysephotos.com/zzGreaterPewee1.jpg
 
Check out the two photos here. They are of the same bird, but slightly different angles. One seems to show a dark mandible, the other pale.
 
This bird looks better for an Olive-sided Flycatcher to me. It shows a very long primary projection (longer than the average Greater Pewee) and a thick but not long bill with a darkish looking lower mandible (straighter lower mandible, not so thick in G.Pewee, making it look subtly longer billed and with a pale lower mandible). The crown also looks a bit darker than the rest of the head (more or less concolorus in G.Pewee). The presence of wing bars is very variable in both species, I wouldn't put much money on that. Compare with these few examples of Olive-sideds below:



http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Olive-sided_Flycatcher
http://www.zuropak.com/photogallery/2008-favourites/Olive-sided-Flycatcher-049.jpg
http://www.birdcapemay.org/blog/uploaded_images/OliveSidedFlycatcher1PX100308P1020259-783821.jpg

Cheers,
Eduardo
 
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