ID Help Please

[denise ippolito]

shot at Island Bch SP in early spring

[Dave Brown]

Hi Denise,

This is an Eastern Phoebe. It's one of, if not the earliest returning flycatcher. Probably because of it's ability to eat berries if needed.

Dave Brown

[denise ippolito]

thankyou very much

[John Chardine]

Dave- It would be useful for all to know why it is an Eastern Phoebe. What field marks does the image show that eliminate other candidates.

[Dave Brown]

Hi,

Normally I would have provided more explanation but I was short on time. I gues the first thing to do would be to assign this bird to a general group, family etc of birds. We can tell pretty much immediately that this is a Passerine(perching bird). Once we know this we can drill down further. We can often assign a bird to a general group, finch,sparrow, tanager,warbler,flycatcher, based on bill shape and size. This birds bill does not look quite conical enough for a finch or a sparrow. It is a little closer to a Tanger bill in shape and size but still a little too pointy and also even the dullest female Tanagers are more colorful than this species. So that leaves us with a flycatchers or a warbler. These birds differ greatly in several ways, size, shape, habitat, behavior. It should be fairly obvious that this is not a warbler. Therefore we have made our first breakthrough this is a Flycatcher.

Now that we know this bird is a flycatcher the next course of action is to identify it to species. Flycatchers can be divided into subgroups, Empids, Phoebes, Wood Peewees(including Olive-sided Flycatcher) and Kingbirds. These Flycatchers often are found in very different habitat types. Familiarity with the species found in your area will greatly help you in your identification efforts. Empids are generally the smallest of flycatchers are are found in a variety of wooded habitats,while they are easily identified from other groups of flycatchers some empids are almost impossible to identify from one another..but that another story for another time! This bird apepars to be in an open area and therefore makes it most likely some type of Phoebe,Kindbird or Wood- pewee. This bird is mainly black and white and has a relatively small pointy bill. The only kingbird that can look anything like this would be Eastern. Eastern Kingbird would have a larger thicker bill a more contrasting black cap, and will always( unless in active moult) have a white band across the bottom of it's tail.Therefore we are left with the Phoebe's and Woodpewees.

Woodpewees or Olive Sided are generally brownish green, have a vested appearance on the breast and have very noticeable wing bars.They also appear to be rather short tailed and long winged. If viewed from the side or behind you will notice that the tail tip is not that far beyond the wingtips. As well they often have bi- colored bills, a feature that is never or perhaps very very rarely seen on Phoebes.

At this point I think we can confidently say this bird is a Phoebe. There are three species of Phoebes in North America. You location alone will usually rule oput one or two species, although both Eastern and Says Phoebe are highly migratory and can be found ( albeit only casually) in almost any state or province. Black Phoebe tends not to wander as much so if your not inthe south west this species usally isn't a consideration. Separating the Phoebes is actually pretty easy. Black Phoebe as it's name suggest is very black above, it is very white below and has an underside pattern very similar to Dark-eyed Junco. this bird does not show a sharp separation of black and white on the underside so Black Phoebe should be able to be ruled out. Now this leaves Says Phoebe. Says is generally grayish ont he upper breast and rusty on the lower belly, immature Says can be quite yellowish below. This bird does appear to have a very pale yellowish wash on the belly but does not show the grayish upper breast and is probably too pale to ever be a Says Phoebe. Now we are left with our answer, Eastern Phoebe. Generally a black to blackish brown above and white(occasionally yellowish wash below),with a somewhat dusky throat area and an all dark bill. Most field guide will show that Eastern Phoebe do not have wing bars. It is intriguing to see that this bird does show very pale fine wingbars. This is most common in immature birds. Since this bird was photographed in spring,perhaps the wingbars are result of the moult from winter(basic) to summer(alternate) plumage. Information on moult timing would probably answer this question. Sorry this was so long and drawn out..i'ma rambler :)

Dave Brown