canberrabirds

Leaden vs. Satin flycatcher questions

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Subject: Leaden vs. Satin flycatcher questions
From: Chip <>
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:49:03 -0600
I birded Yanununbeyan SC this morning ( about 40 species) and was treated to courtship displays of a large number of Satin flycatchers and a few Leaden flycatchers. I must say that I had a tough time telling them apart and, without song to help, I would have been stumped.  

Maybe I'm mistaken but is it rather difficult to see the difference in "colour" of the back and head of the Leaden flycatcher? Pizzey and Knight (7th) show that the back is gray and the head is black. I saw hints of that in some light but I think it's rather hard to tell if these are true spectral differences or apparent differences due to shadow and, possibly,  irridescence.

On many males some of the primary feathers appeated to be edge in white. This appears in P & K. Is it diagnostic?

As to females, the difference in saturation of the orange-buff on the throat would, I think, only be possible to discriminate if two prototypical birds of both species were side-by-side. Is the white upper throat, difficult to see unless underneath the bird, diagnostic of the female Leaden flycatcher?

Finally, as to song, there wasn't much. It was much more common to hear the buzzy, "zu/irrrp" and often when a male and female were close to each other. Is this a sort of "Let me whisper in your ear, dear" kind of communication?

Chip Scialfa
Calgary and Canberra

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