Alder Flycatcher Island 22

[Chris]

Gord texted me about a potential Alder Flycatcher in the late afternoon at Island 22. Since I live really close, and I wasn't doing much, I decided to head out there. It was an Alder Flycatcher. Gord got a video of it and a picture. The call was a 'pip instead of a 'whit'. If you go towards the west side of the park it is at the small grey gate.

[Gord]

Chris, glad you got out.

It's a fairly vocal bird, which is fairly important as otherwise, it couldnt be identified for certain from a Willow Flycatcher. I heard it first, and couldnt place the call note. Thought maybe a pewee as they have a full repertoire of noises sometimes. When I saw it, it clearly was not but also was notable with fairly white wing bars, a slight eye-ring and plumage a bit 'colder' than what I would say a 'typical' Willow Flycatcher would appear with more brownish tones to the plumage, less contrasting wing bars and usually no eye ring (but Ive seen singing birds with a slight one) . However, trying to tell these two species apart by feathers alone is sailing into fairly dangerous waters as there is overlap.

Anyway, got a recording of the call note which was a fairly hard 'PIP!' as I would describe it. Different from the "whit!" of a Willow Flycatcher. When I get it uploaded (technical difficulties at the moment) I will share.

Got a photograph that does little more than to show a bird with whitish wingbars. It also shows that the bird isnt especially cooperative for pictures not that it really matters considering the species.





Incidentally, this is about 100 metres from where I thought I might have heard one singing in June but was not able to hear it for long enough to be sure it wasnt just an aberrant Willow Flycatcher who can sometimes sing a funny song a few times before switching back to its usual song. I wasnt able to see it, such help as that would have provided at the time.

[Gord]

Recording has been uploaded (finally)

It transferred over quite well from the little camera and onto the computer although in the field it was even a bit sharper sounding.

youtu.be/3W4XrFK5wpQ

[murraybrown]

Nice find Gord. I predict that as more people become familiar with the subtle differences and pay attention especially to the calls, that we will find there are more of these guys around than previously thought.

[kestrel]

Good find Gord. The only flycatcher I can identify by sound is the Willow.

[Gord]

Murray, I think you're right. Undoubtedly more of this species pass through annually but more often than not, they do not cooperate and vocalize.

I was interested to note that the bird did seem to appear a little different from a Willow as I described earlier. I approach this kind of thing pretty casually (but carefully) so doubt the risk of being over eager slants my perspective to where I inadvertently overemphasize what are already fairly subtle field marks.

I dont want to be misleading though and would say that unless a bird vocalizes, even one that looks 'different' probably cannot be identified beyond a hunch.

Joel, sounds like a great start in knowing the Willow Flycatcher. With time, you'll learn the others and start to connect sound with what you're seeing to where you can make a pretty good guess what flycatcher you're looking at. The field guides and other literature are very correct to place heavy caution on not falling into traps of identifying this genus by sight alone. That being said and after many years of experience, a good many can indeed be identified by sight (if a good look is obtained of more than one field mark) with most of the remaining others able to be applied to an educated guess. There are always a few that dont fit and one need to know when to smile at these particular bird and 'let it go'. Those are the ones that make it interesting.

[kestrel]

I figured it would take a quite a bit of experience to be able to tell flycatchers apart by sound alone.