• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

pos. Yucatan Flycatcher? Yucatan, Mexico (1 Viewer)

sharifaone

Well-known member
I have a choice of 4 flycatchers for this one:
1. Yucatan Flycatcher
2. Dusky-capped (Olivaceous) Flycatcher
3. Great Crested Flycatcher
4. Brown-crested Flycatcher

And here's the prob: no tail is visible in the pics. Is it possible to ID these birds without seeing the tail, which I'm told is usually diagnostic? However, the pics do show lots of white on the edges of the tertials. Anyone want to take a stab at this?

1-PC222147.JPG
1-PC222148.JPG
 
I don't see tertials but I do see wing bars which I think are too white for Yucatan Fly. I also don't think that any detail is diagnostic with all four of these, it should be a combination. For id-ing YF I would like to see a well focused shot of the side of the face, view of the folded wings including scapulars, and a different photo showing the underside of the tail.

Niels
 
I don't see tertials but I do see wing bars which I think are too white for Yucatan Fly. I also don't think that any detail is diagnostic with all four of these, it should be a combination. For id-ing YF I would like to see a well focused shot of the side of the face, view of the folded wings including scapulars, and a different photo showing the underside of the tail.

Niels,
these are the only 2 photos I have, sorry! And yes, I used the word "tertials" wrongly. I should have said 'primaries.'
 
Size? Brown-Crested and Great Crested are larger than the other 2....particularly Dusky-capped.
Given the stronger colors, white wing bars and more rufous colour.
Also, refresh my memory. Were you there in December? Though not well documented, it is thought that Brown-Crested winters in Ecuador or certainly south of Yucatan.
 
My references are NeoTropical Birding and A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America.

For the second of these, the text and the maps disagree. The text says resident from Guatemala, the map shows resident in Yucatan and through much of Mexico outside of Yucatan. The ebird observations are more in agrement with the map.

Niels

Edit: the map in Neotropical birds online shows the same: http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/species/overview?p_p_spp=476396
 
Size? Brown-Crested and Great Crested are larger than the other 2....particularly Dusky-capped.
Given the stronger colors, white wing bars and more rufous colour.

And I'm not sure about relative size, since I haven't seen any of the 4 possibilities before. Birding a new area with all new species does present a challenge!
 
Hi All,

You can eliminate a couple of the candidates (Dusky-capped and Yucatan) by the presence of strong white-tipped wing coverts. These are dull fawn-brown in Yucatan and often tawny in Dusky-capped (low contrast in both instances). What I'm interpreting to be some tail feathers projecting back beyond the leaves appear mostly rufous, unlike the pattern shown by either Yucatan or Dusky-capped.

Now whether this is a Great Crested or Brown-crested I cannot say based on these images alone.

Chris
 
I agree with Chris above, in addition to plumage details the relatively large bill and impression of larger size would tend to eliminate Yucatan and Dusky-capped Flycatcher. Of the remaining candidates, I wouldn't say 100% but I would lean toward Great Crested based on the apparent brightness of the underparts and extent of rufous in the primaries.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top