Connecticut USA today-photo identifiable as Least Flycatcher? (1 Viewer)

[jeen1965]

My husband said he could tell this was a Least Flycatcher by its call but can you tell by looking at this photo?-thanks

 

[KenM]

I’d have thought that it would be at “least impossible”

Cheers

 

[jeen1965]

haha!

 

[THE_FERN]

Yes not possible to id from this

 

[Valéry Schollaert]

Well, it might be difficult as often with Empidonax, but with this wing length and all orange lower mandible, I wonder what are the other options? For sure, we can narrow down the list of possibilities...

 

[qwerty5]

Everything in the photo is consistent with Least, but there's no way to make a positive ID. They definitely are identifiable by sound though, so if your husband knew what to listen for that's good enough.

 

[Valéry Schollaert]

As far as I know, the following species are regular in Connecticut.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Acadian Flycatcher
Alder Flycatcher
Willow Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher

I think we exclude easily Willow and Alder on shape, Acadian on primary projection, right ? I would add that bill is too small for all of those of the previous sentence.

Thus, the question is : can it be a Yellow-bellied ?

This is what I call "narrow down"...

 

[jeen1965]

Still bad shot but maybe shows the eye ring a little? Does that help narrow it down?

 

[KenM]

It appears to have a complete eye-ring and the primary projection does look more moderate than least, so Yellow-bellied may well be a candidate?😮