Now that we’ve all mastered the artwork of figuring out Empidonax flycatchers due to a sure discipline information revealed a 12 months in the past, it’s time to begin engaged on Kingbirds and Myiarchus flycatchers! I jest a bit, in fact, birders won’t ever cease puzzling over Empids. However Area Information to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees definitely gave us a framework for identification that upped our degree of discourse and evaluation. The following quantity on this three-book collection is now out: Area Information to North American Flycatchers: Kingbirds and Myiarchus by Cin-Ty Lee, illustrated by Andrew Birch, and it’s as informative and well-organized and wonderful to take a look at because the Empid/Pewee quantity.
Sixteen species which were recorded in the USA are lined: six Myiarchus flycatchers and ten Kingbird (Tyrannus) flycatchers. There may be additionally a piece on Hybrids. It’s an intriguing mixture of generally seen species like Nice Crested Flycatcher and Western Kingbird; species with geographic niches like Brown-crested Flycatcher and Thick-billed Kingbird; and real rarities, like Loggerhead Kingbird. As with the primary quantity, I used to be stunned to see the inclusion of a species that has solely been seen within the U.S. a handful of instances, solely to comprehend how essential it’s to have a useful resource that can assist birders differentiate amongst these very comparable trying birds.
Introductory Materials
Sixteen species, 190 pages. The information may very well be described as sixteen species accounts wrapped up in introductory textual content. Along with the final introduction to the guide’s materials, there are introductions to every genus: Myiarchus and Kingbirds (Tyrannus). These are important studying, perhaps much more essential than the Species Accounts. As a result of, though these flycatcher teams don’t have the attractive, difficult repute of Empidonax flycatchers, they are often complicated–ask any East coast birder making an attempt to determine if a vagrant chicken with worn tail feathers is a Western Kingbird or a Cassin’s Kingbird. Or a birder making an attempt to determine if a medium-sized Myiarchus in Arizona is a Nuttings’s, Ash-throated, or Dusky-capped Flycatcher. Lee and Birch strongly imagine that even look-alike flycatcher species may be recognized utilizing a holistic strategy. This implies observing and noting “a mix of plumage and structural discipline marks, vocalizations, habits, habitat desire, and seasonal timing” (p. 11). The three introductions current a textbook on how to do this.
The introductions speak first about easy methods to know if the flycatcher you’re looking at is a Myiarchus or Kingbird, after which what discipline marks to focus on–whether or not to take a look at form or shade or sample or dimension, and easy methods to decide the all-important main projection. They talk about the results of age and molt on feathers (that Kingbird query above); what kinds of habits to look at (variations in the place they perch, territorial habits, flocking); easy methods to take heed to vocalizations and browse spectograms; easy methods to observe and decide habitat; and easy methods to learn and use distribution maps.
In the event you learn the primary guide, it’s possible you’ll suppose you understand all this already and might skip the fabric. That might be a mistake, these are completely totally different flycatcher teams with virtually completely totally different options to study. Gone are the plates on eye-ring form, and decrease mandible shade, in are plates on undertail sample (a function I knew was essential for warbler identification however had no thought was additionally important for Myiarchus identification), nonetheless essential are plates on main projection and wing panel distinction. The Habitat part has been drastically elevated from the primary quantity, from a half-page of textual content and two work to 2 pages of textual content and twelve clear, beautiful, helpfully captioned pictures. It’s one in every of a number of adjustments made by the authors in response to readers’ and reviewers’ feedback, and I discover it attention-grabbing that there’s a demand for extra details about birds’ environments.*
I notably just like the comparative plates within the genus introductions. Birch’s brilliantly exact illustrations of every species are specified by comparative plates, with Lee’s textual content describing the usually refined variations amongst them. For Myiarchus, we are able to research comparative invoice dimension and form, crown shapes, physique coloration, chest distinction, face distinction, and, in fact, undertail sample and shade. Two side-by-side plates painting the numerous figuring out options of the 4 mostly occurring Myiarchus flycatchers in the USA and Canada–Brown-crested, Nice Crested, Ash-throated and Dusky-capped–in a design that masterfully combines entire physique photos with close-ups of payments and tail feathers and undersides of payments and wings, all with exact explanatory notes. It’s a masterful instance of how scientific illustration can inform and be pleasant to take a look at, and I’d like to have these plates in mini card kind to hold round with me once I go to California.
The Kingbird introductory chapter is shorter, partly as a result of there are much less important options to review, partly as a result of the comparative plates are inserted all through the Species Accounts sections. There are two components to Kingbirds, a piece on “yellow-bellied Kingbirds” and a piece on “white-bellied Kingbirds.” Organizationally that is smart. And I believe it additionally would make sense to put the 2 plates evaluating 4 yellow-bellied Kingbirds–Sofa’s, Tropical, Western, Cassin’s–at first of that part, and the plates evaluating Tropical and Sofa’s Kingbird and Western and Cassin’s Kingbirds after their respective species accounts (poor Thick-billed Kingbird stands alone). I do want there was a word someplace indicating the place they are often discovered, perhaps within the desk of contents or a separate itemizing of comparative plates and even the Index. Individuals seldom use discipline guides in a sequential method, they search for the data they need after which transfer on. So, when you didn’t know these comparative plates existed, you would possibly miss them altogether. I do just like the nifty desk of vocalizations within the Kingbird introduction, which reveals which species give excessive pitched buzzes, brrrs, chEEs, squeaky notes, twitters, and pips. It’s an efficient method to talk the complicated range of vocalizations amongst these species.
Species Accounts
Species accounts fluctuate in size from 5 to eight pages, and the size surprisingly isn’t associated to the commonality of the species. Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a seven-page chicken, partly as a result of the account features a vagrancy chart (one other new function). Every account begins with conventional info: widespread identify, scientific identify, and measurements. A Basic Identification part offers a thumbnail description of the species, together with when it resides in North America, normal geographic space, habitats, important behaviors, an outline of its bodily look (which can be fairly detailed), and data on subspecies in North America. The Vocalizations part describes the species’ diagnostic and fewer diagnostic calls, twitters, chatters, and songs utilizing transliteration and comparisons, additionally describing the tempo and acoustic high quality of the sounds. (Within the Introduction, birders are directed to the Macauley Library of Sounds from Cornell College and the Xeno-canto web site for precise recordings and are cautioned towards extra use of playback.) The Habitat, Distribution, and Seasonal Standing part offers important info on habitat preferences, nest description (for species that breed in North America), breeding vary, migration patterns and when migration takes place, tendency for vagrancy and the place vagrancy often happens. The Related Species part goes into element about easy methods to differentiate the species from comparable trying species, discussing variations in construction, plumage, and all of the options described within the introductory materials (which is why it’s so essential to learn it!). The depth of element may be spectacular: “The liner of Nutting’s mouth is orange as a substitute of the flesh-color or yellow of Ash-throated” (p. 79). (There are additionally very detailed instructions on differentiating Nutting’s tail hooks from Ash-throated tail hooks sophisticated by the dearth of tail hooks on juvenile Ash-throateds, however frankly I didn’t wish to do this a lot typing.)
Complementing the textual content are spectograms of distinctive vocalizations, distribution/seasonality map and graphs, and the web page each birder will search for first, the plate of illustrations of the species. The spectrograms are a lot simpler to learn on this quantity, bigger and darker. The vary maps comprise a tremendous quantity of data: breeding, non-breeding, and year-round vary in North, Central, and South America; migration routes for many species (together with subspecies migration routes), and vagrancy vary. Just like the vagrancy desk cited above, it is a new, precious addition to the collection, particularly to Jap birders like me who might encounter many of the species on this information as vagrants. The season abundance charts and vagrancy charts, offered as bar graphs, give a visualization for when birders can count on to see every species; many species have a number of seasonal charts depicting totally different geographic areas–eleven for Nice Crested Flycatcher! I do want that the important thing for studying the maps’ colours and contours was on the within entrance or again cowl quite than web page 43. It’s a comparatively easy key, six colours and three kinds of traces, however I’ve a porous reminiscence and I ended up tabbing the web page.
The Species Accounts plates are academic and delightful. Birch has a deft, swish means with traces and shapes, so every picture conveys the romance of the chicken in addition to identification options. I’m notably impressed by his means with shade. These flycatchers usually are not essentially the most visible placing species within the avian world (with the potential exception of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher), however they do have their very own refined magnificence of their shades of brown, grey, black and yellow and Birch conveys that very effectively. Species are depicted in aspect profile, three-quarter profile, generally face-front, generally in flight. There are close-ups of essential options: for Myiarchus, undertails and undersides of payments and for some tertial feathers and, sure, mouth lining; for Kingbirds, sketches of main projection and wings in flight. The explanatory captions are in smaller fonts than within the first quantity, however nonetheless very legible.
As talked about above, there’s a chapter on Hybrids. I used to be stunned, I didn’t know this was potential, and the authors write that it’s certainly a uncommon prevalence (although I did discover an article a few hybridization zone of Western Kingbirds and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers). The textual content discusses the kinds of hybrids which were reported and a chart reveals the mixtures visually, shade coded for probably, very uncommon, and extremely unlikely (many of the squares). The plate reveals the three most reported hybrids: Western x Jap Kingbird, Tropical x Grey Kingbird, Western Kingbird x Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I don’t understand how typically this chapter might be used, however I like its inclusion within the spirit of complete-ism.
Group and Again-of-the Guide
Like Area Information to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees, Area Information to North American Flycatchers: Kingbirds and Myiarchus is well-organized and designed. There’s a luxurious in devoting a complete guide to 2 genera, there’s room for clean area if a map or textual content doesn’t fill the entire web page, readable fonts, and full-page separations of sections. These web page dividers embody work by Birch, one other new function of this quantity. Extra impressionistic than his scientific illustrations, the work are an interesting addition, one thing we don’t ordinarily discover in a discipline information and most welcome.
Customers might use the Desk of Contents or the Index to find introductory chapters and Species Accounts. The Desk of Contents checklist Species Accounts by textual content and chicken picture, a format that might be useful to birders who usually are not positive of the identify of the chicken they’ve seen and wish to determine. The Index helpfully lists identification options like “shade” and “primaries” in addition to chicken names (widespread names solely). The three-page Bibliography lists books and articles on chicken identification and distribution standing, together with chapters from Birds of the World, all in impeccable quotation fashion. It’s lacking one merchandise, the chapter on “Yellow-bellied Kingbirds” in Higher Birding: Suggestions, Instruments & Ideas fort the Area by George L. Armistead and Brian L. Sullivan (PUP, 2016), a twelve-page article with comparative pictures.
The checklist of Helpful Web sites continues to be quick however has one noteworthy addition–Surfbirds. This web site, one of many oldest birding presences on the Web, is now the archive for “updates to all volumes of the present Area Information to Flycatchers of North America.” A unbelievable thought! Surfbirds.com will not be essentially the most refined web site on the Web, however it’s free and presumably will proceed to supply its mixture of journey reviews and identification articles (together with a few of Lee and Birch’s earlier articles).
Authors
Authors Cin-Ty Lee and Andrew Birch are birders and birding writers and artists with day jobs, which makes the publication of their two (and the forthcoming third) books on North American flycatchers an astounding achievement. Cin-Ty Lee is Harry Carothers Wiess Professor of Geology, Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences within the Division of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Rice College, Houston, the place he “investigates how our planet has advanced with time, from the deepest components of the Earth’s mantle to the continental crust and to the ambiance” in addition to birding on campus and writing cool birding notes that he generally reveals on the social media website previously referred to as Twitter. Andrew Birch is well-known within the Los Angeles birding group (I had the pleasure of assembly him a number of years in the past at Silver Lake Reservoir, the place he confirmed me the place to search for the long-staying Lucy’s Warbler), the place he is among the leaders of the Los Angeles Birders group. He’s a co-illustrator of Area Information to the Birds of the Center East (1996) and has illustrated many different magazines and articles. Lee and Birch have co-authored discipline identification articles on birds that aren’t flycatchers, together with dowitchers, loons, pipits, and orioles, for Birding and Texas Birds Annual.
Conclusion
Area Information to North American Flycatchers: Kingbirds and Myiarchus by Cin-Ty Lee and Andrew Birch is an distinctive identification information, revolutionary in its deal with holistic identification offered by way of detailed, readable textual content; scientific illustrations; diagrammatic displays of vocalizations and geographic distribution, and explanations of easy methods to put all of it collectively to give you an identification. The authors have improved on the primary quantity on this collection, Area Information to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees, in numerous methods, together with increasing info on habitat and vagrancy, enhancing the readability of the spectograms, and creating abstract comparability plates. Many of the birds on this quantity are discovered within the west, however I believe Jap birders will discover it helpful too. Possibly extra helpful since Kingbird vagrants typically presents knotty identification questions and we Jap birders typically don’t even know the place to begin, what options to take a look at aside from outer tail feathers. Slim, transportable and attractively priced, they can be utilized within the discipline or subsequent to your laptop as you look at pictures, they’re additionally enjoyable to flick thru.
These two books are the one identification discipline guides that focus solely on flycatchers. There might be a 3rd guide within the collection. Cin-Ty Lee tells me that they don’t have a reputation but, however the guide might be extra technical, have a big format, and can embody all of the plates of the primary two quantity in addition to pictures. It can cowl all of the species of the primary two books plus Phoebes, Kiskadees, Elaenias, our one Tyrannulet and another North American flycatchers on the market. It’s one thing to stay up for. In the meantime, now we have these two volumes. I noticed an Jap Kingbird right this moment in an area park, simply identifiable by its patterned black, grey, and white physique and quick flights on the tippy tops of the bushes. Quickly the Empids will arrive–Least, Willow, Acadian, generally Alder and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers. And the Jap Wooden-pewees. I must reread the information to Empidonax and Pewees, brush up on my Empid identification. After which in September I’ll reread guide two’s part on yellow-bellied Kingbirds and Myiarchus flycatchers earlier than my journey to California. I wish to be ready, I wish to know my Western from my Tropical from my Cassin’s from my Sofa’s, my Ash-throated from my Dusky-capped. There isn’t a magic wand for flycatcher identification, however it’s good to know that there’s a well-thought out, superbly illustrated methodology.
*Cin-Ty Lee kindly answered my questions in regards to the third quantity and adjustments from the primary quantity on the final minute. Thanks!
** https://www.cintylee.org/about
Area Information to North American Flycatchers: Kingbirds and Myiarchus
by Cin-Ty Lee; illustrated by Andrew Birch
Princeton Univ. Press, April 2024 (U.Okay. June 2024)
flexibound, 200pp. dimension: 5 x 8 in., illus: 56 shade + 18 b/w illus. 17 maps. 51
ISBN: 9780691240640
$19.95/£16.99
