I have been trying to identify one of the birds that I photgraphed in Ecuador on a recent trip, on Jun 26, 2001. The location is Eastern Ecuador near the Napo River. This is an open area near the river. I have 4 different identifications of the bird. Three of the identifications are by experts, and they are all different.
Below are three photographs taken of the "Mystery bird" along with drawings of some of the candidate identifications. All three photographs are taken within a 2 minute interval. The drawings are from the book "The Birds of Ecuador - Field Guide, Robert S. Ridgely and Paul J. Greenfield".
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This bird has been posted to the "Frontiers of Field Identification" listserv. One additional possibility was reported by two people. Before posting to the listserv, the identifications that I received were:
Peter English - VENT guide
and expert on Ecuador birds:
(from one picture) ... looks to me like a Piratic Flycatcher, but that is a 70% guess.
(from all three pictures) I am now thinking that it is a Swainson's Flycatcher (not perfect, but it works)
Mike Mulligan:
Real fast without much checking, it looks like it may be
a Brownish Flycatcher, Cnipodectes subbrunneus. In my
Panama book (Ridgely, 1989), it's called Brownish Twistwing. This bird is sometimes confused with
Thrushlike Schiffornis, formerly Thrushlike Mourner or
Thrushlike Manakin, one of the taxonomic mystery-birds.
Paul Greenfield - expert
and illustrator of Birds of Ecuador:
Looks to me like Crowned
Slaty-Flycatcher (Griseotyrannus
aurantioatricristatus). The reason it might not look
exactly like the one on Plate 74 - #13 in the book is
that it may be either a juvenile bird or perhaps in warn
plumage. Note your bird shows some wing markings.
Identification received from Robert Ridgely:
The identifications received from the Fontiers of Field Identification are:
Luis Santaella:
Myiarchus Short-Crested Flycatcher?
Michael L. P. Retter:
Reminds me of Golden-crowned
Flycatchers I've seen in Venezuela,
but I have no idea whether that species even occurs in
Ecuador. So, just an idea.
Martin Reid:
An interesting bird. It is tempting to think of Myarchus,
but the flat head and remnant of rearward supercilium
point away from this - as does the streaking on the
underparts visible in a few spots. It also suggests
Pale-bellied Mourner (eye looks good), but the habitat/behaviour
and the underparts streaking are wrong. So, I am left
with a dull, worn, faded adult Golden-crowned Flycatcher (Miodynestes chryocephalus) - assuming that you
were in theTena area of the Napo, and not much lower down
the drainage. Many mid-lower-slope Andean species
are seen at Tena - there's some evidence that seasonally,
some species go down even lower. I'll be interested to
know what others think!
Stephen Greenfield:
This is a good test of the new field guide (which must
have come out just too late for your trip). I'd say
a slightly shabby austral migrant Swainson's Flycatcher of the feriocior subspecies.
Martin Reid:
Well, there certainly is a lot to choose from there! I
have reconsidered, but still feel it is much closer to
GCFly than anything else; I scanned-in two pics of GCFly
from August: http://www.martinreid.com/gcrowfly.html - I ask that you compare them to your
bird; I think that apart from the intensity of the pale
head markings, it is a very close fit, especially: The
underparts, which look perfect, including the scattered,
sparse, blurry streaks that are clearly evident on your
bird ( i copied the images and zoomed-in on them) - all
wrong for other offered choices except Piratic. The warm
tones in the tail edges, outermost wing coverts, and
basal primary edges, plus the creamy edges to the inner
wing coverts, tertials and secondaries. The general shape
and structure, including the flattish head, and the
large, wide bill with slight paling at base on mandible.
I think that your bird in June is when an adult would be
at its most worn/faded, while my August birds have
probably recently finished their complete molt. The
actual pattern on the head is extremely similar: the
shape/position of the pale supercilium; the broadish dark
loral "mask" continuing (more narrowly) behind
the eye (no Myarchus would have this, surely?), the only
major difference is the dullness of your bird's
supercilium and sub-eyeline, which could be due to
extreme wear and fading. In one of your images there is a
faint but clearly evident malar streak - again perfect
for GCFly and wrong for the other contenders except
Piratic (which in my experience is more obviously
streaked on the flanks, has a much thicker dark face
mask, and less/no rufous in the wings and tail - plus the
bill looks way too big) - and note that the malar streak
is barely visible in my pics of GCFly, thus it can be
faint. Anyway, all this leaves me preferring a slightly
out-of-range GCFly to any of the other contenders - and I
imagine that Paul G, Mitch Lysinger, etc, may be able to
confirm (or not) that GCFly is an occasional visitor
downriver to Sacha; certainly some other foothill species
are recorded there seasonally.Feel free to share my
thoughts/pics with anyone else - I need to learn from
this too!
John Sterling:
I took a look at your photos of your mystery bird.
My first and lasting impressions are that of the Crowned Slaty Flycatcher--I bird that I have seen quite a few times.
Your photos seem to show a bit of olive or yellow on the
underparts, but I assume that this is a case of the
photographs or my computer screen not showing the true
color.
Floyd E. Hayes - Lecturer
in Zoology - University of the West Indies
Having briefly looked at your bird several days ago and
considering several species, I gave up--just had too many
other things to do. I considered Crowned Slaty Flycatcher because of the head shape and pattern, but the
warm tones didn't look right. Now, having considered the
comments of others and checking up on Ridgely and Tudor,
I would tentatively vote for an immature Crowned Slaty
Flycatcher. I've seen a lot of them in Paraguay and even
in museum collections--but don't recall looking carefully
at immatures, which of course would be expected to have
some brown tones, especially on the wing coverts. Recall
that breeding should occur October-February followed by
northward migration around March. But somehow I would
think by June it would be looking more like an adult...
Hugh McGuinness
I saw your mystery photos, and I was wondering what the
elevation was where you saw the bird. I gather you meant
near the Rio Napo (not Naro), which might make the
elevation fairly low. I have just returned fom Ecuador
myself, and will have a report ready in the next 6 months.
Kevin Easley
<Ticokid@aol.com>
I received the 3 photos of the Flycatcher. Very
interesting. I do not believe it is a Brownish
Twistwing (Flycatcher) at all. Habitat, sitting on
an open branch for photos, bill shape, etc rule that out.
I personally would look at a worn plumage Variegated Flycatcher (Empidonomus varius). The habitat would
be right and the fact that it stuck around for photos and
sat on an open perch. I could be a first year bird
or worn plumage in which case you would need to take the
picture in any plate and wash out most of the obvious
streaking. My first impression was Piratic Fly but
the tail and wing showed too much rufous and more pink at
the base of the bill. Very interesting photo
though, habits would have been a good clue had I seen it.
Thanks for the challenge!!!
Notes sent for clarification:
I sent a note to Paul Greenfield:
David Cahlander:
I had looked at the drawing of the Crowned Slaty-Flycatcher and thought that it was close. I was not
sure about the color of the chest, since the picture
shows almost a brown color with just a hint of yellow,
and the drawing shows a darker gray. The eye-line
is right, but the drawing indicates a back with a little
more rufous color.
I had asked Peter English and he said Swainson's Flycatcher. This does not look like a Swainson's
Flycatcher to me. Almost everything is wrong. The
back color, the line through the eye, the color of the
breast, and the color of the bill.
Paul Greenfield:
I Think Swainson's
Flycatcher would be wrong.
I sent a note to Peter English:
David Cahlander:
In my quest to identify the flycatcher, I sent the
pictures to Paul Greenfield. He indicated that he
thought it was a Crowned
Slaty Flycatcher. Do you
think that this is possible?
I sent a note to Martin Reid:
David Cahlander:
< text of the other calls and sending him a scan of
the description that Ridgely has for the range of the
Golden-crowned Flycatcher. Ridgely indicates that it is
found "Mostly 1000-2200 m.">
The "farm" at Sacha Lodge is located at 221 m.
according to my GPS.
Martin Reid:
Thanks for the scan; I have not gotten the new EC book
yet! Note that they say "mostly"; Birds of S.Am
quotes it as low as 500m, while Birds of the High
Andes says down to c.600m; Sacha is at 300m (I've been
there 3 times), and I know that e.g. Orange-breasted
Falcon has be confirmed there a couple of times - this is
an upper foothill species that seasonally wanders;
I can't remember what other examples there are, but I
know there are at least one or two other foothill species
that are occasionally seen in the 500 - 300m zone.You did
not mention my comments about the similarities with
GCFly; The underparts alone are so much like GCFly and
unlike any of the other contenders (the flammulated
appearance plus the sparse blurry streaks on the lower
belly and extreme undertail coverts), that to my mind, it
is more likely to be a mildly extralimital form that it
strongly resembles, than an in-range form that would
shatter the known range of plumage variations, IMHO...
Note to John Sterling:
David Cahlander:
Did you consider a Swainson's
Flycatcher?
John Sterling:
Did not consider Swainson's
Flycatcher--not even close in my
opinion.
It certainly is interesting that so many different identifications have been made of this bird.
Peter English brings up the point of the yellow cast shown under the bird. I'm not sure if this is actual color or a misrepresentation of the color by my camera. The camera seems to give a very accurate color rendition, but lighting may effect its output. The pictures are taken with a Cannon D-30 digital camera. All the pictures are taken with an f/2.8 300mm lens with a 2x doubler. In order to provide some indication of color shift, the two photographs below are taken at about the same time as the three pictures shown above. The second picture shows a distinct yellow cast on the bird.
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Variegated Flycatcher - 2001 Jun 26 9:15:18 CDT |
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Variegated Flycatcher - 2001 Jun 26 9:23:40 CDT |
david@cahlander.com
Last update 2001 Nov 13
