>Bill Hackos and I heard singing and then saw a Western Wood Pewee at Bryant and Evergreen parkway in Evergreen on Saturday 31 March
JoAnn-- I recently read a very enlightening post on the Mass birding listserv by Marshall Iliff <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Mail/MassBird/1147496>, the project leader for ebirds, that you and others may want to be aware of. Though it is in reference to reported sightings in the East, I think it has relevance to us also since we have Wood-Pewees, Starlings and Eastern Phoebes. Also note that the closes sighting on a Western Wood-Pewee on ebird in Mexico about 200 miles south of Phoenix. "EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE -- Every single year, in most eastern states, Eastern Wood-Pewee is reported up to a month earlier than any documented record. Here in Massachusetts, the species should be reported with extreme caution anytime before 1 May (or even 5 May). The primary culprit? European Starling. Singing starlings mimic Eastern Wood-Pewee a lot and birders who are good with bird sounds, but not aware of this problem, regularly get ensnared by starlings singing Eastern Wood-Pewee songs. A good rule of thumb, track down your FOY pewee ad check it visually! The other problem though is the very real challenge of telling Eastern Phoebe from other flycatchers. Lets face it, when April and May roll around, we are all rusty on our flycatchers, since they have been gone for the whole winter. Eastern Phoebe does wag its tail a lot, has no face pattern at all, has a stubby black bill, and pretty dull wings and upperparts. It behaves like a phoebe too, and is conspicuous and often around bridges and eaves of houses." There is a lot of other good info in this post. I don't know what you heard but in case it was a Starling, many a birder has heard them give very good imitations of a number of species. SeEtta Moss Canon City Blogging for Birds and Blooms magazine @ http://birdsandbloomsblog.com/category/birding/ (new link) Personal blog @ BirdsAndBlooms.blogspot.com<http://birdsandblooms.blogspot.com/> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
