ML481517801

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

This bird 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 immediately made us think that it was a Gray, 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 Empid. 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 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.

Technical information

Model

ILCE-7M3

Lens

FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS

ISO

1600

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/2500 sec

Dimensions

1804 pixels x 1472 pixels

Original file size

664.26 KB