29 August 2023
Olive-sided flycatchers (Contopus cooperi) are uncommon birds in Pittsburgh. Not solely have they declined 78% since 1970, however they’re solely current on migration after which only one or two per season. When three people have been discovered on the identical day, Friday 25 August, in Allegheny County it was uncommon certainly. These three weren’t the identical hen:
- Sewickley Heights Borough Park at 8:20am, seen not too long ago on Monday 28 Aug
- Hartwood Acres, Saxonburg Fields at 10:50am
- Homewood Cemetery at midday
Although olive-sided flycatchers nest from Alaska to Newfoundland and southward into the Cascades and Rockies, not a lot is thought of their migration routes. Within the fall the japanese birds typically circulation westward inside Canada, then hold a left at Minnesota and migrate via the Nice Plains and japanese Rockies. You’ll be able to see their relative abundance from the third week of August via the third week of October on this slide present.
Olive-sided flycatcher weekly relative abundance from eBird Standing and Developments
Alaska’s breeding olive-sided flycatchers are declining quickly and have one of many longest migrations of any flycatcher — from Alaska to Peru. Migratory stopover websites are crucial for his or her survival however no person knew the place they went so a examine staff, headed by Julie C. Hagelin, determined to trace the birds’ migration by catching them in mist nets and attaching geolocator backpacks.
What they found when the birds returned is that Alaskan breeders fan out throughout the Rockies on their approach south, some as far east as Texas, earlier than they head via Mexico to South America. In addition they discovered 13 vital stopover websites which might be essential to the birds’ survival on migration. Their favourite spots are barely totally different in Central America in fall versus spring. Two of the 13 websites are within the U.S. Cascade Mountains. All of the websites are on these maps.
and non-breeding areas of a boreal songbird in
steep decline)
Pittsburgh by no means figures closely within the olive-sided flycatcher’s journey agenda although this 12 months we gave the impression to be a sexy stopover. Our birds most likely come from breeding websites in japanese Canada.
Are our olive-sided flycatchers stopping on the similar locations in Central America because the Alaskan group? We gained’t know till some runs an identical examine in japanese Canada.
(photograph from Wikimedia Commons, abundance maps from eBird, stopover maps from DeGruyter; origin hyperlinks are within the captions)
