Great-crested Flycatcher
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Posted by Trey Mitchell on 18:11:13 04/24/06
Well, dreams of photographing a Western Spindalis at Royal Palm slipped away.
I couldn't get there early and beat the crowds, but I did arrive by 9am and
headed straight for the described location of yesterdays sighting. It wasn't
long before I heard the bird about 50-75 ft into the hammock off the trail near
the really large oak tree halfway through the trail. I had listened to the call
online quite a bit before heading out this morning. There was no doubt in my
mind that I was hearing the bird I was chasing. It called repeatedly for about 5
minutes and would respond to my feeble attempts to imitate it, but it didn't
come closer or show itself.
I finished walking the trail and heard and saw both Great-crested and
Brown-crested Flycatchers in the same tree. I have heard Great-crested
Flycatchers call many times, but I had never heard the call that I was hearing
before. I checked my Sibley's and and the call was as described for a
Brown-crested Flycatcher "prEErr prdrdrrr, wrrp-didider". Both birds were
calling but the Brown-crested had a more complex call and seemed to vary greatly
whereas the Great crested would make it's normal call several times in a row
then would make its "KRREEEP" call. I remember hearing that Brown-crested down
here don't call like that. They only do the "whip whip" sound.
Visually the observation was made a bit easier having both birds in the same
tree for comparison. The Brown-crested had a very pale yellow wash on the lower
belly and didn't extend up as far on the chest as with the Great-crested which
had a bright yellow belly extending all the way to the tail.
Comments from the experts out there are welcome.
I continued looking for the Western Spindalis going out to the parking lot
and walking up Anhinga Trail a short way. I started back into the Gumbo Limbo
trail when a birder came running up to me saying that someone had just seen the
bird a few minutes ago somewhere along the path. I followed here into the
hammock looking and listening and just before reaching the oak tree again I saw
what I think was the Western Spindalis fly across the trail. The making were
right, but it was only a brief look. We looked for the bird without success. We
did however hear it call a couple of times from further into the hammock.
After a little while we decided to go back to the parking lot only to find
out that the bird had been seen in the Strangler Fig at the gift shop. They said
that it flew into the hammock after a few minutes. By the description of events,
the bird I saw fly across the trail was heading the right direction at the right
time. Go figure.
Anyway, I didn't get a good look at the bird nor the photograph I was
seeking.
There was a pretty good variety of species:
Pine Warbler
Palm
B&W
Prairie
BT Blue
Cape May
Black Poll
Worm-eating
Yellow Rump
Black-throated Green
Yellow-throated
Red-start
Common Yellow Throat
Yellow Warbler
Northern Parula
Heard a Water-thrush
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
The Flycatchers & the Spindalis
Great-crested Flycatcher
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Pine Warbler
Pine Warbler - Posed for me well!
American Crows staying cool
Anhinga
Some kind of wasp that is nesting in the median in the parking lot.
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