And now for the wood-pewees... Eric and David and I saw two of them in the parking lot at Gregory Canyon. One of them was textbook-perfect for Western Wood-Pewee--but it was constantly giving that sweet rising whistle with only a faint hint of modulation, or "buzziness." No problem there; if you have enough experience with Western Wood-Pewees, you know they give that call. If you don't, you sometimes mistakenly call the birds Eastern Wood-Pewees. The other bird was even more instructional. Appearance-wise, it was great for Eastern Wood-Pewee. It had a nice, entirely orangey lower mandible; it had bright, broad wingbars of equal width; it had clean, white, unmarked undertail coverts; and in direct comparison with the nearby Western Wood-Pewee, it was obviously lighter and greener. (The specific epithets for the two birds reveal an important point of distinction between them. The Eastern Wood-Pewee's specific epithet is virens, and that means, roughly speaking, "green"; the Western Wood-Pewee's specific epithet is sordidulus, and that means, roughly speaking, "dirty little bugger.") So I really hoped this candidate Eastern Wood-Pewee would sing. Well, it did, eventually; and it belted out a 100% typical Western Wood-Pewee song. Bottom line: Do NOT try to identify silent wood-pewees in the spring. In fall, after the birds have molted, I believe *some* birds may be safely identified by appearance alone. In the spring, however, the birds' feathers are all worn out; wood-pewees apparently do not have a spring (prealternate) molt, so their feathers are well trashed from the rigors of having migrated down to South America and back. -------------------------------
Ted Floyd Editor, Birding Follow Birding magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BirdingMagazine ------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy is not the old busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_3 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobi...@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.
