Monday, June 7, 2010

Dusky Flycatcher

This spring for about 3 weeks a plain little bird took up residence on one of the phone wires just above the office.  This determined little fellow called all day, perhaps he was looking for a mate.

I am a great fan of birds but this guy had one song and he never took a break.  With him so close to the office, I got to hear him sing it all day.  I tried to take pictures but he would fly away the moment I took out a camera so  I wondered how I would ever identify him.

Today I spotted a gray bird with a yellow chest sitting on a wire above a nut tree.  I've learned to take my camera everywhere so I snapped a few photos.  I don't have a telephoto lens so I couldn't get a very good pic but while I was looking him up on the Internet, I found a site with bird songs.    I figured he was a flycatcher of some sort so I started going through the whole list.

While looking through the bird pictures and listening to the songs, I stopped to listen to one called a Say's Phoebe and there was my annoying little song bird from work.  If you click on the link and then on the arrow that says LISTEN   http://www.seattleaudubon.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=291 you can hear what I had to listen to some days for the whole shift.

These are the pictures I was able to capture, the closest I was able to come was a Dusky Flycatcher as it had quite a yellow body.  If any of you know for sure I'd love to hear from you as I've never seen one before.


4 comments:

  1. So the song matched out?Not much a call but enjoy their arobatic catches when chasing insects.Couldn't find in my book so looked it up and see some rather strong white markings on the head.While camping we had bob white all evening. A errant camper wanting to sleep yelled shut up and they did for a moment.

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  2. I may be wrong,but this looks like a Western Kingbird to me.
    Blessings,Ruth

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  3. I just looked up a Western Kingbird and I think you're right. I'll check out the song maybe that will confirm it.

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  4. I listened to the song and I think that's what it is, thanks.

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