ML21156431
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Media notes
Eastern Phoebe photographed on 15 November 2015 at Pond C at the San Jacinto Wildlife Area, Riverside County, California. This bird was found earlier in the day by David Rankin.
Observation details
We rushed over to look for this bird shortly after it was reported by David Rankin along the trail crossing Pond C. It took a number of us some time to relocate this bird before Brittany eventually spotted it foraging low along the edge of a stand of bulrush on the north side of the pond. We then spent a short time observing this bird as it foraged actively yet quietly by sallying out from the bulrushes and later the nearby willows. This was a small to medium-sized flycatcher that appeared to me to be similar in both size and shape to a Black Phoebe. Although I saw no phoebes in direct comparison with this bird, I did note at one time that this bird was maybe a third larger than a male Vermilion Flycatcher that was perched nearby. The bill was relatively short, slim, and sharp-tipped, with the culmen essentially straight from the base to the tip of the bill. The bill would have extended backward on the face to a point just behind the eye. The forehead was relatively steep, but the crown sloped more gently upward to a weak peak that as I recall was located where the crown met the nape, behind which the back of the neck sloped downward more sharply to the back. Typical of a phoebe, this bird had a proportionately large head, a short and inconspicuous neck, and a body that was plump but not conspicuously so. The posture of the perched bird was roughly diagonal, with the tail held downward in the plane of the body, but I never noted this bird wagging its tail. The wings were relatively short, with a primary projection that was about one-third the length of the exposed secondaries, but I failed to notice how many primaries extended beyond the longest secondaries. The tail was about as long as the head and body combined, but I cannot now recall anything more about its shape. The legs appeared to be relatively short and slim. This bird was not really all that different from a Black Phoebe in its plumage patterns and even its coloration, but when seen at least reasonable well, the upperparts were not nearly so blackish and the underparts were mostly a creamy-white in color. The head was dusky in coloration and without any obvious eyering or other pattern. I thought the head and neck contrasted as somewhat darker than the back and scapulars, which were an olive-gray in color and unmarked in appearance. The wings were sooty-black with fine fringes to the remiges and coverts. The greater and median coverts each had pale, olive-gray fringes that produced a scaly upper wingbar. The greater coverts were similarly colored but with the pale fringes extending down along the distal part of the outer edge and across the tip of each feather to produce a diffuse lower wingbar. The secondaries were blackish with narrow but well-defined fringes of white that extended the length of the outer edge and across the tip to produce a finely striped pattern on the rear part of the wing. The primaries were more solidly blackish (though they may have had slightly paler edges), which produced a dark band along the leading edge of the closed wing. I further thought the exposed primaries in the wingtip were solidly black. My recollection is that the upperside of the tail was dusky as opposed to blackish, but my only clear recollection is that it did not contrast sharply with the wings. Contrasting sharply with the dark head and upperparts, the underparts were a creamy-whitish from the throat down across the center of the breast and through the belly, flanks, and undertail coverts. Clearly evident was a grayish, if not olive, wash at the sides of the breast, but I noted no obvious yellow tones below. I cannot now recall anything about the underside of the tail. The bill, legs, and feet were black, but I noted the eyes only as being dark and not contrasting strongly with the plumage of the face.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 7D
- Lens
- EF400mm f/5.6L USM
- ISO
- 500
- Focal length
- 400 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/8.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/1250 sec
- Dimensions
- 1910 pixels x 1255 pixels
- Original file size
- 1.12 MB