Western Flycatchers in Washington Co.

["Rick Fridell" <rfridell at burgoyne dot com>]

Hello,
I hope everyone is having a great new year.  Yesterday (1/15), Tim Avery,
Merrill Webb and I located a "Western" Flycatcher in St. George, Washington
Co., UT. We were able to observe and study the bird for 30-45 minutes and
Tim took a few photographs. We believe it was a first winter bird, with a
tear-dropped shaped eyering, olive green above, pale yellow below, buffy
wingbars and tertial edgings, bicolored bill (dark above, yellow below),
short primary projection, etc.

This is the first mid-winter record of any Empidonax in Washington County
that I'm aware of.  If anyone knows of any other Empids observed in Utah
mid-November through March, I'd sincerely appreciate if you could please
send me the details.

So I spent the rest of the day excited about this bird, wondering what
circumstances led to its being around in mid-January.  Today Kristen and I
got out for a couple of hours and hiked along the Virgin River above the
Washington Fields Diversion, and UNBELIEVABLY we saw another 'Western'
Flycatcher.  I believe this bird was an adult, overall more yellow than
yesterday's flycatcher.  I'm stunned, it has been fairly warm so far in
January with highs in the 50's and 60's however lows are still often below
freezing, lately in the upper 20's (which is average or slightly below
average for the Virgin Valley), and December was much colder than average
(?). Either it's an exceptional year, or perhaps they are somewhat regular
and we've never found any until now?

Kristen asked me what I was going to call these 'Western' Flycatchers, and I
decided that I'd call one a Pacific-slope and the other a Cordilleran ;)
Seriously it does bring up an interesting question.  Since these two species
are indistinguishable in the field, it's best to leave them as simply
'Western' Flycatchers. However, conventional wisdom suggests they are
Pacific-Slope Flycatchers. Neither 'Western' Flycatcher species typically
winters within the United States. The Cordilleran Flycatcher winters in the
mountains of Mexico down to the foothills on the pacific slope.  The
Pacific-slope Flycatcher winter range is lowlands along the pacific coast of
Mexico, however (from Lowther 2000) they are rarely, but regularly found in
winter in California (10 or so reported annually), and Arizona, particularly
along the Colorado River (~ 15+ annually).  Intriguing....


Other recent sightings of potential interest include:
A stunning adult male Vermilion Flycatcher at the Southgate GC clubhouse
pond yesterday (1/15; along with four wintering Snow Geese and two Ross's
Geese).
Two first-winter Tundra Swans remaining (1/16) along the Virgin River below
the Quail Creek Dam, splitting time between Stratton and Zitting Ponds.
A House Wren (1/9; another surprise winter visitor) outside the park museum
in Zion Canyon, and several Red-naped Sapsuckers, including a hybrid RN X RB
in the pecan trees around the Zion visitor's center.
Seven Wood Ducks at the Springdale Pond (1/9).

Best Regards,


Rick Fridell
Hurricane, UT


I think this is my first post ever with a Literature Cited section!!

Lowther, P. E. 2000. Pacific-slope Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis) and
Cordilleran Flycatcher (Empidonax occidentalis). In The Birds of North
America, No. 556 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America,
Inc., Philadelphia, PA

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