ML481484911

Observation details

This bird was initially detected during the afternoon area search in the Coast Guard tree, a tall, scraggly Monterey cypress. It was first called out as a Willow Flycatcher, but that seemed off once we noticed the bill (too narrow, straight sided and dark tipped). The bill and white underparts immediately made us think that it was a Gray Flycatcher, but the bird was olive above (yes, possible for a young Gray, although the recent fall birds on the Farallones were gray backed), but the behavior was off for an Empidonax flycatcher. The bird never wagged its tail (phoebe-like) or flicked its tail up like most Empids. It also had a bushy crown, which was occasionally blown into a crest by the strong northwest wind. Also, the bird spent most of its time sitting still, occasionally hopping around the branches. It never vocalized. We watched it for about an hour. Early on, Jonah joked that it might be an elaenia. After a while, we came back to that idea. The wingbars were really bold (white on black), and they were confined to the outer corners and sharply demarcated. The white tertial edges were also sharply demarcated. None of us had seen Small-billed or White-crested, the two most likely elaenia species to vagrate a long distance north of their tropical range. After watching Alvaro Jaramillo's elaenia presentation (thank you BTW for putting that together!), we came to believe the bird was a Small-billed. White-crowned can be eliminated because we never saw white in the crown, and the head only looked crested when the wind was blowing at the back of its head. The wingbars look sort of spotted, which I guess is created by the black inner corners to the greater coverts. And in a few photos, there appears to be a third wingbar on the lesser coverts. The primary spacing is difficult to ascertain from the photos because the feathers look disheveled. The overall dorsal color of the bird appeared olive, not yellow-green or pure green. Although Lesser Elaenia has not been detected in North America yet, it should also be considered. It appears that the wingbars on that species are more diffuse and lack the sharply demarcated black and white contrast that the Farallon bird had. Other elaenia species seem even less likely to occur in North America or do not appear similar to the Farallon bird.