Empidonax Identification in the West

Cin-Ty Lee, PhD

Tue, Mar 09, 2021 7:00 PM

Dr. Lee is a geologist, petrologist, and geochemist at Rice University in Houston, Texas. When he is not doing geology, he spends time birding, and painting and drawing birds and writing and consulting about birds and the environment.

Field identification of western Empidonax flycatchers has long been a daunting challenge for many of us. Dr. Lee will help us learn common local species, Western, Willow, Hammond’s and Gray, and then delve into migrant species such as Dusky, vagrant Least’s, etc. Photographic identification can be as misleading as it is informative because of plumage freshness versus wear, impact of lighting regimes and foliage reflectance, and camera and monitoring issues, etc. Sounds are particularly important in identifying empids — if they call. Join us to solve the mystery of empid identification in the field!

Here is a video of the webinar: