Now that we’ve all mastered the artwork of figuring out Empidonax flycatchers due to a sure subject information printed a yr 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 actually gave us a framework for identification that upped our stage of discourse and evaluation. The following quantity on this three-book sequence 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 have a look at because the Empid/Pewee quantity.
Sixteen species which have been recorded in the US are coated: 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 understand how vital 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, possibly much more vital than the Species Accounts. As a result of, though these flycatcher teams don’t have the attractive, difficult fame of Empidonax flycatchers, they are often complicated–ask any East coast birder making an attempt to determine if a vagrant hen 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 could be recognized utilizing a holistic method. This implies observing and noting “a mix of plumage and structural subject marks, vocalizations, habits, habitat desire, and seasonal timing” (p. 11). The three introductions current a textbook on how to do this.
The introductions discuss first about the way to know if the flycatcher you’re looking at is a Myiarchus or Kingbird, after which what subject marks to focus on–whether or not to have a look at form or shade or sample or measurement, and the way to decide the all-important main projection. They focus on the results of age and molt on feathers (that Kingbird query above); what varieties of habits to look at (variations in the place they perch, territorial habits, flocking); the way to hearken to vocalizations and skim spectograms; the way to observe and decide habitat; and the way to learn and use distribution maps.
Should you learn the primary guide, you could suppose you realize all this already and may skip the fabric. That may be a mistake, these are completely completely different flycatcher teams with virtually completely completely 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 vital for warbler identification however had no concept was additionally important for Myiarchus identification), nonetheless vital are plates on main projection and wing panel distinction. The Habitat part has been vastly elevated from the primary quantity, from a half-page of textual content and two work to 2 pages of textual content and twelve clear, pretty, helpfully captioned images. It’s one in all a number of adjustments made by the authors in response to readers’ and reviewers’ feedback, and I discover it fascinating 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 delicate variations amongst them. For Myiarchus, we will examine comparative invoice measurement 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 US and Canada–Brown-crested, Nice Crested, Ash-throated and Dusky-capped–in a design that masterfully combines entire physique photographs 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 fulfilling to have a look at, and I’d like to have these plates in mini card kind to hold round with me after I go to California.
The Kingbird introductory chapter is shorter, partly as a result of there are much less important options to check, 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 feel it additionally would make sense to put the 2 plates evaluating 4 yellow-bellied Kingbirds–Sofa’s, Tropical, Western, Cassin’s–initially 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 observe someplace indicating the place they are often discovered, possibly within the desk of contents or a separate itemizing of comparative plates and even the Index. Individuals seldom use subject guides in a sequential method, they search for the knowledge they need after which transfer on. So, if you happen to didn’t know these comparative plates existed, you may miss them altogether. I do just like the nifty desk of vocalizations within the Kingbird introduction, which exhibits which species give excessive pitched buzzes, brrrs, chEEs, squeaky notes, twitters, and pips. It’s an efficient strategy to talk the complicated variety of vocalizations amongst these species.
Species Accounts
Species accounts fluctuate in size from 5 to eight pages, and the size surprisingly is just not associated to the commonality of the species. Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a seven-page hen, partly as a result of the account features a vagrancy chart (one other new function). Every account begins with conventional info: frequent identify, scientific identify, and measurements. A Common Identification part offers a thumbnail description of the species, together with when it resides in North America, common 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 normally happens. The Comparable Species part goes into element about the way 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 vital to learn it!). The depth of element could be spectacular: “The liner of Nutting’s mouth is orange as an alternative 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 difficult by the shortage of tail hooks on juvenile Ash-throateds, however frankly I didn’t need to try 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 knowledge: 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, useful addition to the sequence, particularly to Japanese birders like me who could encounter a lot of the species on this information as vagrants. The season abundance charts and vagrancy charts, introduced 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 completely 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 slightly than web page 43. It’s a comparatively easy key, six colours and three varieties of strains, however I’ve a porous reminiscence and I ended up tabbing the web page.
The Species Accounts plates are instructional and delightful. Birch has a deft, swish method with strains and shapes, so every picture conveys the romance of the hen in addition to identification options. I’m notably impressed by his method with shade. These flycatchers should not probably 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 delicate magnificence of their shades of brown, grey, black and yellow and Birch conveys that very properly. Species are depicted in facet profile, three-quarter profile, generally face-front, generally in flight. There are close-ups of vital 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 incidence (although I did discover an article a couple of hybridization zone of Western Kingbirds and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers). The textual content discusses the varieties of hybrids which have been reported and a chart exhibits the mixtures visually, shade coded for most definitely, very uncommon, and extremely unlikely (a lot of the squares). The plate exhibits the three most reported hybrids: Western x Japanese Kingbird, Tropical x Grey Kingbird, Western Kingbird x Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I don’t know the way typically this chapter will likely be used, however I love 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 subject information and most welcome.
Customers could use the Desk of Contents or the Index to find introductory chapters and Species Accounts. The Desk of Contents listing Species Accounts by textual content and hen picture, a format that will likely be useful to birders who should not positive of the identify of the hen they’ve seen and need to determine. The Index helpfully lists identification options like “shade” and “primaries” in addition to hen names (frequent names solely). The three-page Bibliography lists books and articles on hen identification and distribution standing, together with chapters from Birds of the World, all in impeccable quotation model. It’s lacking one merchandise, the chapter on “Yellow-bellied Kingbirds” in Higher Birding: Ideas, Instruments & Ideas fort the Area by George L. Armistead and Brian L. Sullivan (PUP, 2016), a twelve-page article with comparative images.
The listing of Helpful Web sites remains 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 implausible concept! Surfbirds.com might not be probably the most subtle web site on the Web, however it’s free and presumably will proceed to supply its mixture of journey experiences 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 exhibits 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 likely one of 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 subject 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 give attention to holistic identification introduced by means of detailed, readable textual content; scientific illustrations; diagrammatic displays of vocalizations and geographic distribution, and explanations of the way to put all of it collectively to provide you with an identification. The authors have improved on the primary quantity on this sequence, Area Information to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees, in various 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 feel Japanese birders will discover it helpful too. Perhaps extra helpful since Kingbird vagrants typically presents knotty identification questions and we Japanese birders typically don’t even know the place to begin, what options to have a look at apart from outer tail feathers. Slim, moveable and attractively priced, they can be utilized within the subject or subsequent to your laptop as you look at pictures, they’re additionally enjoyable to flick thru.
These two books are the one identification subject guides that focus solely on flycatchers. There will likely be a 3rd guide within the sequence. Cin-Ty Lee tells me that they don’t have a reputation but, however the guide will likely be extra technical, have a big format, and can embody all of the plates of the primary two quantity in addition to pictures. It’s going to 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, we’ve these two volumes. I noticed an Japanese Kingbird as we speak in a neighborhood 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 Japanese 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 need to be ready, I need 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, but it surely’s good to know that there’s a well-thought out, fantastically illustrated methodology.
*Cin-Ty Lee kindly answered my questions concerning 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. measurement: 5 x 8 in., illus: 56 shade + 18 b/w illus. 17 maps. 51
ISBN: 9780691240640
$19.95/£16.99
