ML624360857

Observation details

It flew in calling from SW above the trail and eventually landed right near the viewpoint. I immediately recognized it as a PUFI/CAFI from the calls in flight. After it landed it continued to call in a very squeaky, sharp, and clear manner. With PUFI I expect a looser, more languid cadence with it's disjunct type song/calls. Having said that, I know vocalizations in this overlapping range should be identified with caution taking distance, wind, and other noise into account on top of similar qualities. I then noticed visually it had a slightly peaked crest on the forecrown that was more red than any of the other areas of coloration with a pinkish wash on other parts of it's head and much less coloration on the underside of the bird. The clincher seems to be the white eye arcs (forever grateful for this field mark Jay, thanks!) as PUFI lacks this. Note: I saw, photographed, and recorded this bird 25 minutes after dawn where the sun was emitting extremely gorgeous, autumnal/orange light and thusly it was hard for the camera to comprehend the white balance. Initially shot on auto white balance setting of 6050, I brought it down to 3842 for the exported product to try to rid of the orange light as best as possible to better see the coloration. Alas, coloration might seem strange, but the saturation of color on the bird itself is accurate. This is the best that could be done with the lighting I had and thought it would be worth noting when studying the plumage details.