ML238780801
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
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- Playback
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Observation details
Traill's empidonax because of relatively long wing projection and no obvious eye ring (so not Least Flycatcher). Off-white wing bars, olive above & pale below. Most views showed peaked head. Actively feeding, perching in the small maples along water's edge, on limbs that extended over the water. It never landed on the same perch twice. I watched it call "pip" 4-5 times, which led to this ID. This call ruled out WIFL, which has a markedly sharp, emphatic "whit" call. I was recording audio (in pursuit of Prothonotary Warbler) when I saw/heard the ALFL. The soft "pip" call, barely audible in the recording, occurs at 4- and 15-second marks. Approximate location: 35.775945, -78.825892, aka, Peninsula Point. I tried to get close to the bird for a photo, but it was so active, perching for only seconds at a time before sallying forth to catch new prey. I followed the bird down the shore line closer to the mouth of the creek (Crabtree Creek). A noisy hiker approached and the bird flew across the mouth of Crabtree Creek (see this in Google maps) to opposite side. I hiked there but could not refind it. I recognize that this is an extremely rare bird in the Piedmont. It is unfortunate that it only produced call notes, and never sang its song. But Kenn Kaufman writes of the comparison between WIFL & ALFL calls: "The typical call note [of a WIFL] is a sharp thick "whit!", very different from Alder's call..." My ID of this bird is based on that difference. That said, I appreciate the scrutiny required of this report.
Technical information
- Recorder
- Microphone
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 1.83 MB