Posted by John Boyd on January 20, 2002 at 13:31:10:
The Tropical Audubon trip to Archbold on Saturday made its first stop at Belle Glade Marina and Campground. I spotted the Vermilion Flycatcher before we had even parked the cars. This is a very interesting-looking Vermilion. It's orange! I've never seen one that looks like that, nor have I seen such a color on female or young Vermilions in Texas and Arizona. However, another birder I talked to felt the color was within the range of variation.
To me, the bird appears to be an adult male which happens to be orange. The bird is quite different from the young male illustrated in Sibley, or from descriptions I have read of young male Vermilions. There is no streaking. There are no white areas where adult males would have color. Finally, the color is not "mottled". What color variation there was, which was in shades of orange, appeared smooth...and there wasn't a lot of color variation in the first place.
According to Pyle, there are two subspecies of Vermilion that occur in the US. The eastern subspecies (mexicanus), which breeds in Texas, and is thought to be our usual wintering bird, has adult males that are "deep red". The western subspecies (flammeus) is not thought to winter in Florida, but has an adult male color range from "red to orange-red", and can even show pale mottling.
There are also 11 other Mexican subspecies about which I have no real information. It's possible this bird is a flammeus, or one of the other subspecies that isn't supposed to winter here. I now wish I had taken some photos!
A number of warblers were present, with a female Yellow Warbler being the highlight. Some Lesser Scaup were also at the Marina, and one of the people there told me there are a large number of Scaup (and possibly other ducks) out on the lake. However, you need a boat to see them.