Eastern Wood-Pewee does have a broader bill than Western Wood-Pewee, according to the Pyle guide (Bird-banding manual). My recent photo of a young juv. Eastern Wood-Pewee in Missouri (tail still growing) shows this well, and also shows a white throat. There were many eastern wood-pewees around, and none had obvious wingbars. Nonetheless, the bill on SeEtta’s bird still looks too big. Her photo of Greater Pewee in Texas shows a large bill and smudging on undertail coverts. According to Pyle, tail length in Greater Pewee and Olive-sided Flycatcher overlap. Given that the photos clearly show lack of olive sides, the only other feasible explanation I can think of is hybrid, perhaps between Greater Pewee and Olive-sided Fly. Has anybody ever heard of such a thing? Seems like a vagrant Greater Pewee is a more likely explanation.
Nick Komar Fort Collins CO From: Mark Peterson Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 10:19 AM To: CoBirds Subject: [cobirds] Canon City Contopus COBirders, Note: Pewee in this context only refers to Greater and our two Wood-Pewee's, I am not trying to rule out anything from south of the border. As I know very little about those species and I am going to assume it is not one of those anyhow ;). After looking at these photos for a while, I personally do not think this is a Greater Pewee. To me, the bird looks stocky and short-tailed, it has smudging on the undertail coverts (GRPE does not show this) and when the bird is "cresting" its feathers they are not crested in the back of the head like a GRPE would be. Also, the bill seems really broad where I believe a GRPE has a much narrower bill. Greater Pewee is long and slender and this bird does not look long and slender to me. I personally think this is an Olive-sided Flycatcher. In most of the pictures the bird seems very dark backed (could be lighting?). I don't really see anything much for wing-bars (can barely see that part of the bird) but I think with any of the other Pewee's, except maybe Western Wood-Pewee we would see something, but not positive about that. If you look at the only photo where the birds bill is closed, it shows that the bill is not as yellow as it appears in all the other photos where the light is shining through. Also in that photo, you can see the throat very well and other than a little smudging it looks to be very clean white which I don't think any of the other Pewee's show. And again, the smudging on the undertial coverts certainly works for OSFL but also works for both Wood-Pewee's. I hope this information is helpful and correct. This is just my personal opinion of the bird. ----- Mark Peterson Colorado Springs -- 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 https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- 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 https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
