ML610407606
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
***MEGA; seems to fit all features of Western; first seen as we were checking out the greenhouses and buying a plant and some honey (the owners of the farm are super friendly and welcoming to birders); at this point I didn't even have binoculars on and just saw a bird perched up behind the house. MRW had binoculars and identified as pewee, and we immediately were struck by the cold, dark grayish appearance, lack of olive tones, and dull upper wingbar. Upon retrieval of my binoculars from the car, we were able to study the bird further and tried Western Wood-Pewee playback, at which point it immediately rocketed in over our heads, landing about 6 feet up above us in the closest tree, looking down with agitation/interest. We then tried Eastern Wood-Pewee, which elicited a half-hearted flight and perhaps a bit of interest but it quickly returned to the original tree. Then tried Western again and it rocketed in again with strong interest; we then waited until others arrived before any other playback (and it seemed to lose interest later on). Visually, this bird seems like a perfect candidate for Western Wood-Pewee. The lower mandible is about 80% black, with a bit of orange right at the base. The wingbars are relatively narrow and dull, with significant contrast between the upper and lower wingbars. At a distance, the upper wingbar was almost invisible! The uniform, cold gray tone from the head to the neck to the sides was striking. There was a bit of whitish in the center of the lower belly, almost recalling Olive-sided Flycatcher, but the upper chest was washed with gray. There were no olive or yellowish tones at all. There was one especially obvious dark mark on the undertail coverts and some other smudges. We also thought the shape and posture was somehow different from Eastern, but difficult to articulate, perhaps shorter-tailed? One interesting feature noted in the new Flycatcher book (Lee and Birch) is that Western holds its tail straighter and more in-line with the back; this is evident in some photos and could be supportive? We are very confident that we heard at least two soft, buzzy "bzeer!" calls from the bird as Doug was recording; unfortunately the bird was a bit distant at this time and ambient humanoid noises were hindering our ability to listen carefully. Fingers crossed he can pull something out of the recording!
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS R5
- Lens
- RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
- ISO
- 1000
- Focal length
- 500 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/7.1
- Shutter speed
- 1/2500 sec
- Dimensions
- 2204 pixels x 1329 pixels
- Original file size
- 914.57 KB