ML609764673

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

From my field notebook: "Kathy Molina, Ted Nordhagen (from Westby, MT) and I arrive in El Golfo around 0940 and covered the beach areas at KM 109 and in the center and south end of town; we also briefly covered the planted shade trees in town. As we were driving along one small side street in town Ted noticed a small bird flitting in a tree beside the road. Figuring any passerine migrant might be of interest this late in the spring (except Willow Flycatchers, of which there were several) we stopped the car, I put my binoculars up to see a nice White-eyed Vireo head sticking out of the foliage. The bird's identity was quite obvious, with the combination of bright yellow lores, gleaming white eye, and heavy black bill. We stopped the car and had off-and-on looks at the bird for about one minute. Since I suspected this might be a first record for Sonora, I then got my camera out of the car and again saw the bird off-and-on for about another minute while I attempted to take photos. I only took two pictures and I doubt they will clearly show any identifying characters [Note: one photo was sufficient to ID the bird]. The bird was foraging rather actively in a shade tree [Pithecellobium dulce, or "Guamuchil"]. It was generally grayish-olive above and white below (including thee throat), with a strong wash of clear pale yellow on the sides and flanks. There was a broad, bright yellow band across the forehead and supraloral area, coming slightly over the eye. This contrasted with the gray crown, and was separated from the white throat by an indistinct dark loral stripe. Because I did not see the wings and upperparts well (I was concentrating on getting photos for half the time the bird was visible) I can't even say if there were wingbars, other than to say that any present were not bold and crisply white. The bill was rather heavy and black. The eye was bright white, something that was quite distinctive and re-checked about three times. The bird soon flew south to a dense Ficus and then (what was probably the bird) off to another Ficus. We did not see it again."

Technical information

Model

96660

ISO

50

Focal length

2.8 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/1.8

Shutter speed

1/74 sec

Dimensions

2741 pixels x 1827 pixels

Original file size

1.14 MB