ML635342849

Dettagli dell'osservazione

**Very rare. This species has been on our radar, given multiple reports of out-of-range individuals this spring. While scanning for high-flying landbirds around 07:30 (most birds were extremely high at this time given the calm conditions) I came across this bird, flying very high and fairly rapidly to the west over town. I immediately called it out as a kingbird, but that didn't sit right after a couple more moments of watching it. I considered some other sort of flycatcher/pewee or even Townsend's Solitaire given how slender and long-tailed it looked, and then abandoned that idea and simply hoped it would drop lower or turn around. It eventually did both, though mostly the former, and as it approached a flock of equally-high Blue Jays it pulled up in a sudden hover and then faced us. As it returned back toward the east it became evident that this was actually a bluebird. Still, the flight style--far more reminiscent of a kingbird or swallow--and the overall shape made me hesitant about its identity. After a few failed attempts at getting the bird in the scope (it was nearly overhead at this point) I attempted some photos, and after a few swings and misses was able to get the auto-focus to lock on. After firing off a few series, I returned to watching it in bins until it vanished off to the east, still quite high. Total observation time was maybe 20-25 seconds, with the bird consistently up high in low light, against some fairly dark clouds. I never knowingly heard this bird vocalize, though admittedly the combination of surf noise and multiple folks talking might have made it impossible to hear given its altitude. I returned to counting duties as a number of birds had slipped by at this point, but an hour or so later returned to contemplating this individual as the overall flight slowed and visitors departed. After jotting down some notes, I spun back through the photos on the back of the camera and sent some around to a few folks, who all agreed it looked interesting. I got the same reaction from AR when he returned from the Higbee census. In particular, the long and fairly slender wings, proportionately small head, obvious but thin/sharp bill, and strongly notched tail all stood out. In the field I noticed that the bird had some degree of reddish wash to the breast, but neither then or in reviewing photos did it appear that rich or to have a strong contrast to the rest of the underside. My experience with MOBL is limited and I've never seen the species in spring, so not sure how prevalent/not prevalent this color can be on females at this time of year. Upon uploading photos to a computer, a lot of my impressions in the field + in-field review of photos seemed to hold up. The bird consistently has an obvious bill even at a great distance that appears to be all dark and finely pointed; the tail is consistently long and notched and has a certain "thickness" that seems more reminiscent of a kingbird or other large flycatcher; the wings are notably long on a fairly long and slender body; the outermost primaries appear obviously longer and pointed. The reddish wash does show consistently in the pix, but again seems to fade to light gray on the lower breast and eventually whitish toward the belly/vent. The reddish color also seems restricted to the underside, not reaching into the sides of the neck as in EABL. The flanks are tough to gauge in most photos but appear to be at least less colorful than the breast. The bird has a strong eye-ring that is widest behind the eye, though unsure how much value that has. In a few photos the bird also seems to show a paler chin. The head seems to take on a few different shapes in some images/postures, appearing quite flycatcher-like at times. Obviously this isn't the ideal way to go about an identification like this, but the combination of field observations, review of photos, and input from others seems to point to MOBL.