"Western" Willow Flycatcher

Welcome to the world of Empidonax genus flycatchers. I know, they stink horribly with mis-identification, riiiiiight? Well, I think these birds are actually neat to study. Call me crazy, but I enjoy Empids (name in short for these flycatchers) like some enjoy four-year gulls or sandpipers. This genus of flycatchers are best told by voice, but are separable in the field by careful observations. These birds are olive-green/gray/brown tones in nature with usually two distinct wing bars. They sit-upright and occupy a variety of habitats from sagebrush (Gray Flycatcher) to dense eastern hardwoods (Acadian Flycatcher). Typically have contrasting throats and bellies are are very active insectivores. Wood-Pewees have caused confusion in the past, but pewees are larger, longer-tailed, longer-winged, and sit motionless for minutes at a time. Furthermore, most empids are active and flick their tails often.

I was scoping a local water source, Cherry Creek State Park here in Denver, Colorado yesterday. Had some neat things on the water, but I happened upon this empid in an American Plum tree. I immediately got excited, because I knew I was going to have to work my brain for this ID. I'll take you through my thought process.

Here is a quick shot of the American Plum which is fruiting right now. This bush was 13 feet high and had a huge girth. The circumference was close to 30 feet.

The contrasting throat, yellowish undertones, and wing bars told me this was an empid right off the bat. If we look closely, we can see the lack of an eye-ring and the photo above shows an entire yellow lower mandible. In Colorado, birds like Hammond's and Dusky Flycatchers have smaller bills with only half the lower mandible yellow, so they can be eliminated. The eye-ring is next and a HUGE clue. Cordilleran Flycatcher has a pronounced eye-ring with a slight tear-drop towards the back end. This is not a Cordilleran! Least has smaller proportions overall and has an eye-ring as well. Alder has a contrasting white throat and a yellowish lower mandible the entire length of the bill. Hmmmm, fits the description for our bird, doesn't it?

Okay, since this bird was not making any noise I need to look at other attributes. Willow and Alder Flycatcher were once considered the same species (Traill's Flycatcher), but are now split so the similarities are closer than normal. Color should be avoided most of the time since empids go through serious fall molt that washes them out with yellow. Nevertheless, this plumage looks really fresh (sharp, pointy flight feathers and clean appearence) so this bird might be a younger individual. What about Willow Flycatcher? Willow's are very variable and there are multiple subspecies across the nation, but they typically have a very brownish overtone. This bird has just that. This bird was flicking it's tail often which is a habit of many Willow Flys. The shorter wings and longer tail appearence lean towards Willow over Alder (especially in the west where the western Willow Flys have shorter wings than in the east). One last thing that I associate Willow Flycatcher's having is a pronounced peaked crown at the nape. This bird certainly has that as well.

All these clues and still I had to ask some other people for confirmation. Be very careful with Emidonax identification in the field! I actually decided to step back and try my new Nikon EDG 65mm Fieldscope to view the bird to get a better grasp on some of the finer features. The clarity and light absorption capabilities are unbelievable. The crispness from edge to edge allows for a maximum sharp field of view. This bird sat still for a while, but just as I was about to digiscope the little guy he flew farther into the bush.

Okay, so lets recap!

-yellow lower mandible

-lack of eye-ring (huge key)

-short wings

-appearence of long tail

-constant tail bobbing

-peaked crown

-close proximity to the ground

-contrasting white throat

-brownish tones

Given all of these characteristics I identified this bird as a Willow Flycatcher. I love these guys! Take care and please let me know your thoughts or ask questions if you have them.

All photos were taken with a Nikon D200 and a 300mm F4 Nikkor lens. Good Birding!

Birder's World Survey-Win Nikon EDG Binoculars!

Nikon and Birder's World Magazine recently united to promote a survey that Birder's World has created.  We like to thank Chuck Hagner (editor of Birder's World) and their staff for being great partners in the birding field. Visit Birder's World website to tell us a story about your favorite encounter with an Eagle of any type. This part of the promotion runs August through September.

Birder's World will be running this survey with different facets, six times throughout the year. Check out the schedule on the website to take part in the many opportunities that remain to win a Nikon binocular. Anyone whom participates in the bi-monthly bird family survey will be entered in a drawing for a 8x36 Nikon Monarch. If you complete a bonus reader's survey for Birder's World you will be entered in a drawing to win Nikon's top of the line EDG binocular. Please join us in this exciting venture and we look forward to seeing some of your responses.

Next survey up is WARBLERS October through November! Keep up with Nikon Birding!

Good Birding!

Common (during the day) Nighthawks!

If you want to discuss birds with diverse nesting habitats and foraging habits, then this is the right winged creature to point out. Common Nighthawks breed all over the United States (lower 48) except for the southwest. There are other nighthawk species only in Florida and southwest USA. Outside of those areas the bird pictured above is the most likely candidate if encountered in the field. The ability to catch insects on the wing, like the Common Nighthawk, requires the most agility and speed out there. Common Nighthawks have adapted the long, thin, and pointed wings seen below in order to achieve the title of "Aerial Daredevil." Their flight is erratic at best as they can contort their bodies on a moments notice to catch their prey. I have heard many discussions of Common Nighthawks being nocturnal (especially since they are a nightjar/nighthawk), but this species can be found active at all hours and are primarily crepuscular (active early and late in day). I have seen them BOOM in the middle of the day as well as resting. On this day when visiting the Pawnee National Grasslands, a fellow Nikon Birding ProStaffer Bill Schmoker spotted this guy on the pole. As we photographed him a few times we noticed that there were three more in close proximity. A family group, no doubt!

They are pretty tame in the middle of the day, but the nighthawk above took off and gave us a nice aerial display. Its so cool to see even if you've seen it before. Bill and I were challenged to snap shots in mid-air, but this was a difficult task. The shot below was taken during one of "Booms," (primarily for breeding display only) the bird performed. This bird was mainly feeding, but the drastic turn in mid-air disturbed the flight feathers giving off the loud "Boom!" Wicked cool stuff! Also, keep an eye for their extremely large gape which they open up when diving for insects!

Lesser Nighthawk is found throughout the southwest and south Texas, but has a white primary bar that extends farther out on the wing. Can you see the white bar on the primaries of the bird above? Lesser's is farther out toward the tip. In flight, Lesser has shorter wings and more rounded wingtips. Also, there is the voice which is completely different giving off a long trill. In Florida, the Antillean Nighthawk is extremely difficult and it best told apart from the Common by voice. The voice always tells the tale.


These birds nest on any flat ground they can find. Common Nighthawks are on the move down south now, but be sure to check out your local Wal-Mart next time, because they love to nest on big structures like that as well.

These shots were taken with a Nikon D200 and a 300mm F4 Nikkor lens. Other equipment used was a Nikon 7x42 EDG binocular and a 82mm Nikon Fieldscope with a 30x wide-angle eyepiece.

Thanks for reading everyone and feel free to post questions if you have them. Cheers!

Young Ptarmigan!

Some of you may know that I have attempting a quest to hike all 54 of Colorado's fourteen thousand foot mountains. I have accomplished 11 so far but last week was one of the more interesting ones I conquered. Mt. Democrat is part of the Mosquito Range that has 5 "14ers" in a close proximity. The trail started from the base of the main incline and climbed two miles to the summit. I always try to do these early since Mt. Democrat and company are crowd favorites during the weekend given that Denver is only an hour and a half away. I got lucky with a beautiful day although at 5 am it was still pretty chilly. I sat in the car with the heat on full-blast before getting out. I couldn't bring myself to just drive up from the campsite and march out of the car. It was close to freezing at that point!!!! BRRRRR!

I summited with ease given the easy trail up, but found a hen White-tailed Ptarmigan with one chick on the way down. Typically, there are more like five or six young, but perhaps this hen's clutch was preyed on and/or had failed hatchings. They were playing about the trail as people were marching right over them. It is really amazing how tame they really are.

This shot of momma was her hunkering down to avoid the foot traffic on the trail. Once Ptarmigans hatch their clutch the male disappears from the brood rearing and the female takes the chicks to lower elevation to find cover. They don't drop too much however. She will take her babies towards the willows where there is plenty of water and lots of grasses and forbs to feed on. Although the young generally take to insects first they gradually move towards plant matter as they mature.

I get to see Ptarmigans often while hiking these mountains, but I always stop to either take photos or just watch them. Especially when I am on a mountain alone! It becomes so peaceful just to watch these guys. Although White-tailed Ptarmigans aren't hard to identify (only chicken in range and habitat) they are hard to locate, so the challenge makes it worth it.

I took these shots with a Nikon D200 and a 300mm F4 Nikkor lens. Thanks for reading and check back for more posts soon.

Sora!

Last week, Bill Schmoker (Nikon's newest Birding ProStaffer, above) and I ventured out onto the eastern plains of Colorado looking for early shorebird migrants. Eastern Colorado is so vast that you could literally drive yourself to sleep out there trying to cover all of the land and prairie potholes that exist. Our first site was a place called Beebe Draw which essentially is an area of low-lying farmlands that are south of Greeley not too far. We checked every single flooded field, but we have had so much rain in Colorado this summer that all of the wet areas are saturated. What we were hoping for was some good mudflats around the periphery of these water holes. We did our best finding the usual suspects including Baird's Sandpiper, Least Sandpipers, Long-billed Dowitchers, and a few Stilt Sandpipers.

Bill and I stumbled across a few birds victim to cars along the way including the Wilson's Snipe that Bill is holding. The smile is for looks, thus we were not happy to find this bird on the road it its current (at the time) state.


On our way weaving through the water holes onto the Pawnee National Grasslands, Bill and I found a nice little spot that had some regular occurring marsh birds. Lots of Yellow-headed Blackbirds and such. We could hear the incessant wheeet-wheeet-doo-doo-doo-do-do-do-do in descending fashion of the Sora. Virginia Rails were calling as well, but Bill spotted a Sora creeping through the bush and about to come out in the open. We had our camera's ready and snapped what we could. I was luckily able to get a few including this guy flying across the road.


Soras are a common freshwater marsh rail throughout much of the west and north (up to northern Canada and Alaska). They migrate down to the gulf coast and southern Atlantic coast for the winter months, but are resident in some areas. Male Soras have a contrasting black face and bib offset by the thick, yet short yellow bill. The bird pictured above is presumably a female given the lack of any black on the front at all. I assume this is an adult, because if you can look at the flight shot you can see many of the flight feathers (primaries, secondaries, and tertials) are rounded off at the tip. Juveniles would have pointy feathers indicating that those feathers are extremely new and fresh.

These skulkers walk and bob their head forward as they move very diligently though the marsh reeds. Soras will swim if necessary, but most often run extremely fast to avoid danger. They often will pop out on the periphery of the marsh especially when tape is being played. Next time you are in a freshwater marsh listen for their sounds and keep a close eye on the edges to see if one is creeping around.

Good Birding!

Nikon Monarch Rebate!

We have a new promotion going on. I love it when Nikon gets these rolling, because it really allows for an easier purchase. With today's economy we certainly all need a break from financial stresses.

Nikon's Move up to Monarch Fall Rebate Program allows for the consumer to purchase a Nikon Monarch 42mm ATB (MSRP 279.95-339.95) and receive a $50 mail-in rebate through August 1 and October 31.

Check out this website for more information!

http://www.theoutdoorwire.com/story/1249000076ch0h8zcywz2

Good Birding.