Greetings all and Happy New Year. My wife Fran and I ended the year with a bang-a birding bang that is, by getting a “lifer”. For the previous 5 days, ebird had been reporting a Pacific-slope Flycatcher at the Berks County Heritage Center, about a 1 and ¾ hour drive to the west. This is only the third time this species has been reported in Pennsylvania. We got up early on New Year’s Eve and made the easy ride. Friends who had been there the day before gave us directions to the hedgerow where the bird was seen. We hadn’t been there 10 minutes when the flycatcher came out of the thickets, went to the ground to get an insect and returned to his perch, as all flycatchers do. He continued this behavior from one end of the hedgerow to the other, about ¼ mile, for the 3 hours we were there. He was very cooperative and allowed for some great images (we would have been very happy just to see the bird-the images were a bonus). The Pacific-slope Flycatcher is a small yellowish/greenish bird found in warm, humid lowland coniferous forests (usually pine-oak) and dense second-growth woodlands of the Pacific Coast states. A distinguishing feature is that the white eye ring extends to the back in a tear-drop shape. It is nearly identical in appearance to the Cordilleran Flycatcher, and the two forms were formally considered to be the same species, known as the “Western Flycatcher.” A word about ebird. If you are a “birder” at any level, I encourage you to become a citizen-scientist and record your birds using ebird. It’s free and easy and administered by Cornell Lab. More info here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/about/"
PACIFIC SLOPE FLYCATCHER 1183-050
PACIFIC SLOPE FLYCATCHER 1183-073
PACIFIC SLOPE FLYCATCHER F71_9533
PACIFIC SLOPE FLYCATCHER F71_9559
Guestbook for PACIFIC SLOPE FLYCATCHER
sharon furlong(non-registered)
great shots! wish i was there….i get lost so easily i am somewhat cautious about going up there….
