pacific slope flycatcher | Best Life Birding- Birdwatching Tours

By Sally Siko

A couple days ago I shared some photos of what I thought was a Pacific-slope Flycatcher.
I’d mentioned in that post that this bird is very very similar genetically to the Cordilleran Flycatcher.
In fact the two species are so closely related and easily mistaken for one another that I told ya that I’d provide an correction if my species assessment was proven incorrect.
Well here’s an update on this finding!

I’ve been keeping an eye on the N.C. eBird rare bird report all week and have noticed that the big brains over at Cornell had not verified ANYONES submission of the bird in question being a Pacific-slope Flycatcher!
That includes a huge amount of listings with observation details & great photos too.
I thought this was a bit weird so I reached out to some of my fellow birders (far smarter than I) and learned the following…

One- Unfortunately the only way to definitively ID this bird is either by measuring in hand or by DNA sample.
Photos and playback call response are meaningless.

Two- Luckily fecal samples from this Flycatcher at the Buckhorn Reservoir, were collected (thank you to whomever was smart enough to collect the bird’s poop!) earlier this week and taken to the N.C. Museum of Science for assessment.

Three- It is best (IMO) to list this bird as a Pacific-slope/Cordilleran Flycatcher (Western Flycatcher) on eBird at this time until the results of the DNA test come back.
Since I can’t say for certain what kind of bird that Flycatcher is, I have changed my tick from Pacific-slope to the more ambiguous description of Western.
Time will tell how that shakes out 😉

Four- North Carolina birder Andrew Thornton is a good dude.
As demonstrated in the conversation which I’ve shared here, he is supremely helpful when it comes to assisting others to bird with integrity.
I think that’s pretty cool 🙂

Going forward, I’ll keep ya posted on what this bird turns out to be either way.
Thanks to everyone out there who’s been following along on this journey.
Happy birding my friends!
-Sally

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty 50MP monster, the @canonusa #5Ds

Location to see this Flycatcher shown below 🙂

By Sally Siko

After seeing several reports on the NC Rare Bird Alert for a Pacific-slope Flycatcher being seen within an hours drive of my home, I decided to go see if I could spot it.
As a bonus my daughter came along for the ride which was pretty awesome!

We arrived at the Buckhorn Reservoir in Wilson, NC yesterday around 4 PM.
Unfortunately the pinned map locations provided by the other eBirders weren’t accurate so finding this little bird proved to be a challenge!

The first location I tried (near the mudflats) was a no go.
The second spot (a marina parking lot) was a dud and I quickly realized that the bird I was looking for wasn’t going to turn up where the pin locations had said it would be.
I scanned the tree line around the lot and played a couple calls but had no luck.
At this point the sun was getting low in the sky and I decided that I probably wasn’t going to find the bird so I might as well enjoy the sunset sparkling over the water.

Walking down onto one of the long docks, I looked to the left shoreline and noticed that there was a large area of exposed mud which look like it might be drive-able.
So acting on a hunch, my daughter, and I got back into the car and drove out over the levee and onto the mud flats.
At this point, the only clue I had to the birds whereabouts were some eBird comment notes about the Flycatcher being near a red flag.
And lo and behold, flapping in the breeze attached to a low branch was a marking flag tied to a low branch on the muddy beach.
Then….something small and yellow colored fluttered out of the corner of my eye into a bush. I quickly searched for the bird in Merlin and played the single note call of a Pacific-slope Flycatcher.
To my amazement, out popped the Flycatcher who flew immediately up onto a nearby low hanging branch!
Success!!!

Well, I think it was successful.
My sighting still hasn’t been officially confirmed in eBird as the Pacific-slope and Cordilleran flycatchers are pretty difficult to tell apart from one another.
Even with photo verification the conformation might take a few days.
I’m calling this a win though because the bird responded so quickly to the single note call (a Cordilleran typically uses two note calls).
I’ll update this post if I’m proven wrong.
Either way, this was a fun bird to find.

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty 50MP monster, the @canonusa #5Ds

Google Maps pin drop to the exact location to this bird shown below…