We have now determined that the bird in the abbreviated report below claimed as a JUVENILE Grey-streaked Flycatcher was misidentified. It was a juvenile DARK-SIDED FLYCATCHER. Our group pondered on the ID in the field and have now found five characters which give us the confidence to make this claim. As the three leaders of our group are away again from tomorrow we cannot at this time elaborate on this decision. For a series of photographs see
http://www.pbase.com/wildlifeimages/dark_sided_flycatcher
Please note that we have no doubts regarding the adult Grey-streaked Flycatcher so both species were there!
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136
I would attribute the increase to this being a La Nina year producing unseasonal rain.
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136
Thanks Mike,
It is interesting to see that the number of vagrant passerines is well above the long term average. I suspect there are some gripped twitchers out there.
I wonder whether the increase seen this year is just a spike or whether there is a trend developing – perhaps due to some environmental change.
Regards, Laurie.
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Simon, ‘size’ difference is very small and as you know difficult to estimate. How did you estimate size and was that the only character that you used to ID the bird? No wonder you thought the submission would be ‘easy’. Below is a detailed set of reasons for the ID.
Mike Earlier photos on Birding-Aus were Grey-streaked, but this one is definitely Dark-sided in my opinion since the diagnostic dark tips to some of the undertail coverts show in the side-on photo. They are inconspicuous but this is not at all unusual. Grey-streaked never shows these marks.
Other characteristic features are: the bill is longer and stouter (as seen in image of adult birds posted earlier) – slightly asymmetrical eye-ring (though less pronounced than in Cocos bird) is typical of D-S. – marks on breast and sides are diffuse and background colour is dirty, not clearly defined streaks on a white background as in Grey-streaked. The way in which the dark marks on the breast join up under the throat to form a “necklace” is typical of Dark-sided. second photo (in Grey-streaked they extend further). I measure the tail projection beyond tips of primaries in second photo as about 15.1% of the overall length of the bird (as measured in a straight line from crown to tail tip). This is very close to the average (15.4%) I measured for Dark-sided from many photos on Oriental Bird Club website as part of submission on the Cocos bird. For Grey-streaked it averaged 12.9%. – dark lores with pale loral stripe but no pure white is typical of D-S. Rear portion of lores shows the dark triangle mentioned in Alstrom and Hirschfeld (1991) as being characteristic of D-S (and seen in the Cocos bird). Dark marks in pale portion of lores is also said to be characteristic of Dark-sided. Pale loral line does not extend to top of eye (also characteristic of D-S). – buff showing in tips of some wing coverts (characteristic of D-S).
The lack of a pronounced half-collar is unusual although I have seen images of D-S that lack it. I have an updated version of summary id table (with references) from BARC submission if anyone wants it. Regards Neville