Click on the image above for a QuickTime movie showing the tail wag from this very silent flycatcher. This is two frames running several times and seems a bit more exaggerated than what it did while I viewed it.

Flycatcher

Parker River NWR - Sandy Point
November 2, 2008

Thanks to a call from Margo & Steve I was able to spend a bit of time with this very quiet flycatcher which put on a nice show at Sandy Point as it flitted from perch to perch catching bugs we couldn't see. At one point it coughed up a berry seen in one of the images below.

Thoughts on this birds ID? I'd love to hear them.

From David Sibley 11/3/08:

My first reaction to these photos is that it looks like a Least Flycatcher. The short thick bill, mostly orange lower mandible, bold eyering, broad wingbars, olive back with gray-white underparts, etc all look right for that species and wrong for any of the western ones. The slight "tail-wag" is also typical of Least. Obviously this could all be skewed by lighting and other variables, so it's worth getting more pictures and some sounds, but that's where I would lean for now.

Best,
David

From  Marshall J. Iliff 11/4/08:

I am comfortable with Least on this bird. Hammond's is not really a consideration given the short primary projection. Dusky is left as the other similar bird, and the tail is short enough, the head-back contrast mild enough, the bill short enough, and the tones brown enough that I don't see any option beyond Least, really.

Good job to Phil for getting great photos. Every late Empid should be documented this well!

Best,
Marshall