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Posted by Bill Boeringer on 17:04:32 09/18/13
This morning I went over to AD Barnes to look for migrants. Toe called and said he'd found a Swainson's Warbler near the boardwalk, so I headed straight there. I did not find it. However, as we were on the main path just to the northwest of the boardwalk, as we were looking for warblers, I spied a small flycatcher high in the branches above, obscured in part by branches. I got Toe on the bird, and it then moved into the open for just a moment. Just as I started to say that bird s got a lot of yellow , Toe said I think it s a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher! . Maddeningly, it moved often, and stayed in the upper parts of the oaks. Toe was unable to get a photo. After a short time, we lost it. Toe found it again briefly, but then it was gone for good. What I noted was an empid with a yellowish wash over the entire breast, extending completely up on the throat and down to the undertail. The sky was heavily overcast and the wooded area fairly dark (this was approximately 0800), with flat light, so the yellow was not an artifact of morning sun. There were no lighter/whiter areas on the underside. I could not see the entire head or bill, but at one point the bird was directly above us, and we saw the underside of the bill was orange, which really seemed to set off from the yellow underneath. It also appeared less substantial than photos I ve looked at of Acadians this afternoon.
Toe can add his comments to this. While appreciating that YBFL is extremely rare in SoFla, and while normally very cautious about IDing empids, I feel confident that the ID is correct, especially in reviewing banding photos of both Acadian and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers.
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