Two flycatchers - one Black Phoebe, other ? (1 Viewer)

This morning while on a hike in Temescal Canyon near my home, I saw two flycatchers on an open slope. They were interacting as if familiar, perching nearby & sometimes on the same shrub, making the typical flight sallies, possibly mates, not at all in mode of contending over territory. One was obviously a Black Phoebe. The other, which I'd first seen alone, looked like an Ash-Throated Flycatcher (which I've seen previously only in Malibu Cyn, never in the Palisades area).

I looked them up in several bird books and online sites, and all agreed that males & females of the Black Phoebe look alike - black uppers, white belly.

So I'm puzzled. It seems unlikely that two flycatchers of different species would be interacting so closely, yet they looked so different (while both had the typical flycatcher shape and flight).

Comments?

) Bob

Flycatchers of 2 different species might well interact in the way you describe if they’re competing for the same resources (e.g. hunting perches, as perhaps in this case).