ML619068636

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

! First spotted in deciduous tree in yard from window after I had gone inside. Immediately knew it was a Hammond's/Dusky. Started taking photos through window, then heard it start calling and ran outside. Flycatcher was extremely cooperative, perching for good lengths of time before hawking and landing on another branch in the same cluster of trees and bushes. Photographed well in a variety of poses in both sun and shade and took an audio recording through Merlin, which confirmed my suspicions and listed the bird as a Dusky. Field marks observed on the bird suggested Dusky. The bird's bill appeared long compared to Hammond's and thicker at the base, relatively short primary projection which failed to extend past the bird's undertail coverts, and longer tail, lacked short-tailed appearance of Hammond's. No tail bobbing behavior observed & overall darker appearance than Gray Flycatcher. Bill not quite as long as a GRFL. More importantly, the calls - the bird called rather quietly every couple seconds for periods of about a minute each, then went silent for 10-15 minutes in between. Calls were a soft "whit", unlike Hammond's Flycatcher calls which are sharper and form a very different shape in a spectrogram. Audio recording of the second sequence of calls attached, if I can get it to work (this is my first attempt at submitting audio). To give an idea of how quiet the bird's calls were, audio was taken about 30-40 feet away from the bird. With all this in mind, I'm reasonably confident this is a Dusky Flycatcher. Trying to be very cautious with this ID since I know how easy it is to mis-identify empids. This is a bird I've been searching for on my visits to Evans Creek, anticipating I might get lucky to see or hear one during spring migration. Duskies are sometimes reported in the nearby Snoqualmie Valley during this time, sometimes in numbers. Didn't expect my first westside Dusky to show up right in my yard, but I'll take it! First of year.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS R10

Lens

150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Contemporary 015

ISO

800

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/7.1

Shutter speed

1/200 sec

Dimensions

6000 pixels x 4000 pixels

Original file size

5.6 MB