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Ash-throated Flycatcher?? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter bobsofpa
- Start date
crispycreme
Well-known member
The Ash-throated is the palest of the four Myiarchus flycatchers found in North America, but the best way to tell is to look at the tail feather patterns, which can't be seen from this photo. But it sure looks like the Ash-throateds we have around here in Scottsdale, with very light yellow coloring on the breast and almost none on the chest. Did it call? (Ash-throateds have a very distinctive "ka-brick" ).
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Joern Lehmhus
Well-known member
Isn´t that a kind of Kingbird?
I might be wrong, no experience with NA birds!
The plant seems to be an Ocotillo bush?
I might be wrong, no experience with NA birds!
The plant seems to be an Ocotillo bush?
crispycreme
Well-known member
Southwestern Kingbirds (including the Couch's, Western, Tropical, and Cassin's) are generally gray, green, yellow, and white, with little to no crest . This bird is brown, yellow and white, with a distinctive crest. It's definitely one of the Myiarchus flycatchers (Ash-throated, Dusky-capped, Great Crested or Brown-crested).
They're all pretty closely related though, hence the similar appearance.
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Katy Penland
Well-known member
Agree, Matt, Ash-throated. The finer bill than Brown-crested, in the absence of seeing the tail feathers, is also diagnostic. We just had our first Ash-throated for the season show up on the 20th (heard his call just before he conveniently perched on the fence right outside one of the windows!).
Joern, you're right -- ocotillo for the perch. And this sp of flycatcher is almost as big as our kingbirds. Whenever I first see any of the Myiarchus, my first thought is, "Thank God, not an empid!"
Joern, you're right -- ocotillo for the perch. And this sp of flycatcher is almost as big as our kingbirds. Whenever I first see any of the Myiarchus, my first thought is, "Thank God, not an empid!"
Rasmus Boegh
BF member
It certainly is a Myiarchus, but I haven't got enough experiance with the US species to specify. I do have a comment on this genus though. It may very well be the hardest group (together with Tapaculos and Elaenias) to id in the all of the Americas. In South America (and I'm fairly sure it's similar some parts of North+Central America) some species are close to impossible to id without the voice. -And in some of the species with wide distributions the voice is rather variable! So, for this group... learn the voices!
Katy Penland
Well-known member
Rasmus Boegh said:
Absolutely true, Rasmus. With the Empidonax flycatchers, this is gospel as far as I'm concerned. Fortunately for the area where I'm currently living, I only see flycatchers during migration/breeding season, so they're calling very nicely, making IDs less doubtful.
Re: the photo in this thread, I suppose someone could try to make a case for Dusky-capped flycatcher (Myiarchus tuberculifer), but the bill isn't fine enough and the hint at wingbars is consistent for Ash-throated, IMHO.
Wouldn't it be cool if WAV sound files could be attached to messages? Or can they? That would certainly take the guesswork out of most breeding bird IDs.
A thank you to all of you who responed to this post. Voices are a little out of my area. I am primarily a photographer the likes to take photographes (was going to say "shoots", but thought better of it on this forum) of many subjects including birds. I was on a month long trip on which I took 1800+ photos and would no way have remembered the voice of one specific bird, ecept maybe the Cactus Wren.
Bob
Bob
Charles Harper
Régisseur
Still Ash-throated, with cream covert edgings; Dusky-capped has warmer ones.
