{"id":4972,"date":"2015-08-31T21:02:48","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T03:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/?p=4972"},"modified":"2015-09-01T08:03:57","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T14:03:57","slug":"ever-heard-of-pine-flycatcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/earbirding.com\/blog\/archives\/4972","title":{"rendered":"Ever heard of Pine Flycatcher?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pine<\/a>
Pine Flycatcher, June 2015, Parque Natural Mexiquillo, Durango, Mexico. Copyright Andrew Spencer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No group of birds in the ABA area is as infamous for being difficult to identify as Empidonax<\/em> flycatchers. The very utterance of that dreaded name can make a beginning birder quiver in fear, and even the most studied of experts have a healthy respect for the challenge they represent. In earbirding terms, \u201cEmpids\u201d are just about the ultimate argument for sound over sight. While they are no longer considered identifiable by voice only (knowledge of their visual identification has progressed by leaps and bounds the past few decades), vocals are still the best way to distinguish the various species.<\/p>\n

The purpose of this blog post is to draw attention to one of the least known Empidonax<\/em> species, one that has yet to appear in the ABA area, but is high on the list of many a birder as a potential vagrant: Pine Flycatcher (Empidonax affinis<\/em>). An inhabitant of montane forests from just shy of the Arizona border to northern Central America, it favors (as one would expect) pine-dominated woodland.<\/p>\n

While Pine Flycatcher has yet to appear north of the border, the species is already somewhat infamous for an \u201calmost\u201d that appeared in 2008-2009<\/a>. For several weeks, an Empid in Choke Canyon, Texas, caused a good deal of excitement when it was identified as a Pine Flycatcher, both on visuals and vocals. Many listers visited and \u201cticked\u201d the bird before it was re-identified as a Least Flycatcher. Even though, in the end, the bird wasn\u2019t the hoped-for first ABA record, Pine Flycatcher was now \u201con the radar\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pine Flycatcher is still a species that could show up some day. As it is also one of the most poorly known Empid species, both visually and vocally, I\u2019m hoping this blog post will help anyone trying to identify them.<\/p>\n

Visually, Pine Flycatcher isn\u2019t one of the more distinctive Empids. It tends to have an overall greenish cast to the upperparts and whitish\/dingy coloration to the underparts, but it is not terribly colorful, even by Empid standards. Structure plays a better clue in its identification, as it has long primary projection (like Hammond\u2019s), but also has a long, and narrow, bill with a completely pale mandible. This last feature can be especially useful, as the most common way to see a Pine Flycatcher (at least on the breeding grounds) is to be looking straight up at it as it perches high in a tree.<\/p>\n

Away from the breeding grounds, the most commonly heard vocalization of any Empid is typically its contact call. In many species this vocalization is transliterated as a \u201cwhit\u201d, while in others it sounds more like \u201cpip\u201d. Pine Flycatcher falls into the \u201cwhit\u201d category, but with an important caveat. Almost all of the other species that have a \u201cwhit\u201d call are at a similar pitch, and the difference between the calls are down to subtle differences in note shape that give the call a different quality. Pine Flycatcher is distinctly lower pitched, which gives its \u201cwhit\u201d call almost a \u201cpip-like\u201d sound. It is very distinctive once learned, and would be a major piece of evidence in favor of a potential vagrant.\"Empid<\/a><\/p>\n

In the graphic above (with thanks to Tayler Brooks for her help in its preparation), note how strongest (brightest) part of Pine Flycatcher\u2019s call is nearly 1 kHz below the strongest part of the next lowest \u201cwhit\u201d, that of Willow Flycatcher. It also has a smaller bandwidth (that is, covers a small range of frequencies), which contributes to the impression of a \u201cpip\u201d like quality. The other main factor determining the sound quality of each species’ call is the overall steepness of the note, with a larger rise over a shorter time imparting a “drier” (less musical) quality to the call. \u00a0On the far right is Hammond\u2019s Flycatcher, just for comparison. Hammond\u2019s give a true \u201cpip\u201d, the effect of having a call that is cleanly overslurred, without an overall rising pitch. This graphic is also a good one to study to visualize the differences between the western ABA breeding Empid species (the intricacies of their call notes will likely be the topic of a future Earbirding post).\u00a0 You can listen to the various Empid call notes below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n