A few days ago I found an emaciated and heavily damaged carcass at Pelee. I reported it as a possible Empidonax flycatcher based on the field marks we could determine. I was finally able to get the bird to Mark Peck at the ROM and he was able to confirm that it was not an Empidonax flycatcher but was in fact an American Pipit. Now before you say “how could anyone confuse the two families?” consider we found a 5.5” long green-ish-backed bird in the forest, with distinct wing bars, a bi-coloured bill and white on what to appeared only the distal half of the underside of the tail. Having most of the face missing didn’t help. My friend’s old i–phone (with Sibley app) nicely distorted the breast colour of two potential Empidonax flycatchers such that it matched our bird quite nicely.
That said, no excuses, but lessons were learned that might be helpful to others ... Make sure your observations are peer reviewed if possible – another’s eyes will see things you don’t A bird in the bush doesn’t look much like a bird in the hand Emaciated birds appear smaller than healthy ones Don’t rely on habitat at all if you find yourself in this situation Don’t rely totally on the field marks or colours in field guides, apps or i-phones you have with you Thank-you so much to Mark Peck for solving this mystery. So the next time you see me on the trail, be nice – I’m a senior citizen now. Geoff Carpentier AVOCET NATURE SERVICES _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup Posting guidelines can be found at http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdsguide
