ML636438532

Observation details

Silent Empid, flycatching from shrubs along lakeshore, across the dam (36.38745, -79.36218). Disappeared before I could try playback of candidate species. Short-medium primary projection, medium bill, rounded head, thin but clean eye-ring, medium tail. Did not get good look at underparts, but I think mostly white. Head shape, primary projection, and habitat rule out Acadian. Bill size, thinness of eye-ring, and tail shape likely rule out Least. Coloration, primary projection, and tail shape rule out Yellow-bellied. That leaves Alder/Willow. Given the lack of vocalizations, I'm not sure if this can be conclusively determined. I believe the rounded crown and thin eye ring are more suggestive of Alder, but what I can see of the primary spacing leans slightly towards Willow, I think. Probably best to leave at the species pair level.