^Field sketch (Laura Cunningham).
Unfortunately I did not get any photos of this Empidonax flycatcher when I heard it singing on June 2 and 3, 2005, in my yard in Oasis Valley. I probably would not have dared to identify this difficult bird, but the song gave it away: an emphatic "chebek!", often repeated three or four times in a row. The flycatcher actively flew about all day in the cottonwoods, willows, and elms around the yard. It had an eyering, well-defined wingbars, a yellowish belly, and pink lower mandible. It did not flick its tail, but held it down somewhat. It flew about to different twigs high in the trees, often hovering by the leaves like a kinglet.
This rare bird has also been seen at Torrance Ranch Preserve a few times.
Least flycatchers are wanderers from Canada and the eastern U.S. They are very rare but fairly regular spring and fall migrants in California, and a nesting pair was discovered in the Warner Mountains in far norhteastern California (Modoc County) in July 1984 (Arnold Small, California Birds, Thier Status and Distribution, 1994, Ibis Publishing Co., Vista, California). Before 2001 there have been 9 records in Death Valley National Park, adjacent to Oasis Valley, in May, and again in September, October, and November in low elevation oases (Douglas Threloff and J. Mark Sappington, 2001, The Birds of Death Valley National Park: A Comprehensive Database of Records Bewteen the Years 1891 an 2000. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ventura CA and U.S. Geological Service-Biological Resources Division, Las Vegas).
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