Bird catching insects, Colorado front range (1 Viewer)

[tenex]

Yesterday in the woods we saw two or three birds in the tops of tall trees, flying out to catch insects. It was an odd mixture of low sunlight and shade, and considerable distance, but the impression was consistent with Western/Cordilleran Flycatcher: rather light with some eye markings, dark wings with prominent bars (no sense of a crested head viewed from below).

The problem is that it's quite late to be seeing flycatchers here; the last eBird report in this county was 5 Sept, and apparently that already got flagged initially as unlikely. What other possibility comes to mind?

 

[qwerty5]

Yellow-rumped Warblers will flycatch regularly, and at a distance I think they match your description. Seeing multiple flycatchers feeding together in October sounds extremely unlikely, but I would expect Yellow-rumped Warblers to be doing that.

 

[tenex]

Perfect. Not male YRWA (too contrasty) but female/juvenile. I should have thought of that; even the streaky bits (which I didn't mention but remember now) are right, I just couldn't see distinct yellow patches in that light. Thanks!

 

[Andy Adcock]

I read this as insects, catching birds!

 

[tenex]

That would have required a hyphen.