[cobirds] Canon City Contopus

COBirders,

Note:  Pewee in this context only refers to Greater and our two Wood-Pewee's, I am not trying to rule out anything from south of the border.  As I know very little about those species and I am going to assume it is not one of those anyhow ;).

After looking at these photos for a while, I personally do not think this is a Greater Pewee.  To me, the bird looks stocky and short-tailed, it has smudging on the undertail coverts (GRPE does not show this) and when the bird is "cresting" its feathers they are not crested in the back of the head like a GRPE would be.  Also, the bill seems really broad where I believe a GRPE has a much narrower bill.  Greater Pewee is long and slender and this bird does not look long and slender to me.

I personally think this is an Olive-sided Flycatcher.  In most of the pictures the bird seems very dark backed (could be lighting?).  I don't really see anything much for wing-bars (can barely see that part of the bird) but I think with any of the other Pewee's, except maybe Western Wood-Pewee we would see something, but not positive about that.  If you look at the only photo where the birds bill is closed, it shows that the bill is not as yellow as it appears in all the other photos where the light is shining through.  Also in that photo, you can see the throat very well and other than a little smudging it looks to be very clean white which I don't think any of the other Pewee's show.  And again, the smudging on the undertial coverts certainly works for OSFL but also works for both Wood-Pewee's.

I hope this information is helpful and correct.  This is just my personal opinion of the bird.

 

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Mark Peterson
Colorado Springs