Quiz answer - quick post

I know, I know - no quiz last week, I'm a slacker...I couldn't find anything good to post, maybe tomorrow there will be another quiz?

Thanks to Dwayne Murphy for being the only person to comment on the quiz (on the blog at least)! C'mon people - was it that intimidating?

So, to the answer... The bird is clearly an Empidonax flycatcher, the bane of most birders (due to shape, size, posture, etc). Since it has a yellowish brown underside, we can quickly rule out most of the empids! This leaves Acadian, Yellow-bellied, Pacific-slope, Cordilleran, Buff-breasted and Dusky. The eye-crescent (teardrop-shaped instead of rounded as in an eyering) allows us to eliminate Yellow-bellied and Acadian. Since this bird has orange wingbars (no that is not a trick of the light!), Dusky is eliminated (only yellow in the winter).

That leaves us with Buff-breasted and the two 'Western' flycatchers. Since this bird is not very 'buffy' on the underside, and not in a high-elevation pine forest, it's a Western. This is further split into Pacific-slope (which is the quiz bird!!!) and Cordilleran, but since they are very difficult to tell without a call I would accept either answer.

Congrats to Brett Fried and Josh Vandermeulen for both getting "Western" Flycatcher.