ML32299151

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

***Mega. Continuing 'western' flycatcher near the Boathouse. Relocated today this morning by Anthony Collerton, seen periodically through the morning. Foraging constantly. Almost constant movement would be punctuated by fairly long periods of inactivity on a perch. Generally stayed very low, often only a foot or two off the ground. Empidonax flycatcher, very yellow overall with bold white eyering. Very ratty plumage, especially on the head, often looking tufted. Occasionally making very short high-pitched metallic notes. Gave two position calls after brief playback to stimulate more diagnostic calls: single-noted, upswept Pacific-slope -type calls. Spectrogram from ML29916831. Nick Mason and Nathan Goldberg worked through the spring semester of 2016 on the fecal extraction of this bird and found that when comparing the ND2 (mitochondrial) gene between Cordilleran and Pacific-slope Flycatchers, there are 5-6 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) that have been used to tell the two species apart (as seen in Rush et al. 2009). These SNPs should be present if the bird is a Cordilleran Flycatcher, and not present if it is a Pacific-slope. We only really need 3+ SNPs to tell this, which is why we eventually focused our efforts on examining the first section (of 4) of the gene (as it contains 3 SNPs). In the image attached here, you can see these SNPs are NOT present, indicating the bird is either a Pacific-slope or Pacific-slope X Cordilleran Flycatcher hybrid:

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

800

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

3264 pixels x 1812 pixels

Original file size

905.44 KB