An Empid! Which one?

The first empidonax of the season appeared this morning bringing up that old favorite: Which Empid is Which?

But what is an empid? As many readers of this column will know, Empidonax is a genus of small flycatchers (close to a dozen north of the border but only five Eastern species) which all look superficially pretty much alike: upright stance, peaked head, eye-ring, wing bars, two-tone bill (lower mandible usually yellow), whitish chin shading off to grayish and even yellowish lower down, medium tail length and a tendency to flick the tail when perched.This bird appeared early in the morning on the branch of an oak tree right on the woodland corner between what I call the 'Front Range' (the edge of the woods facing east) and the place where the marsh makes a right-angle turn to the west. At the break of day, this spot, like the Front Range itself, often catches incoming fall migrants (and, yes, early August is already fall for some migrants). This one had just emerged from the wet vegetation and was preening and drying itself in the warm rays of the early morning sun. The bird had a complete white eye ring that was slightly tear-shaped at the back. It also had buffy wing bars and a strong yellowish tinge to the breast -- almost certainly indicating a young bird. The head color was quite gray but the back was gray/brown or perhaps slightly gray/olive. Of particular note were the small size of the bill and a short primary extension. the wing tips on the folded wings extending just a short way out along the length of the tail. Overall the bird appeared fairly small and round-headed. All these features add up to a Least Flycatcher as the likely call.

As if to confirm this, there was a rather distinctive PIT call from the vegetation on the right and when I walked over to the other side of the bushes, what appeared to be a second bird of the same flavor showed up.

My birding day started in the middle of the night with a Screech Owl trilling away outside the window. It continued first thing in the morning with two Green Herons flying up from the marsh edge and heading acrosss the creek. And then there was the challenge of the empid.

Eric Salzman