Looking at my banding records going back to 1997 at sites on staten island and
one at Fort Tilden, we have never banded a Yellow-bellied flycatcher before the
third week of May. The earliest date is for a bird banded on May 23rd at Fort
Tilden (2001), most of our records (including records from sandy hook, NJ, as
of 2009) are actually from the first week of June. An April Yellow-bellied
flycatcher is very early, but these things do happen.
Tom Brown
Middletown, NJ
>From 1996 through 1999, in the course of near-constant effort banding at the
>Fire Island Lighthouse, I captured 11 northbound Yellow-bellied Flycatchers,
>on dates ranging from 19 May through 13 June. Four of these 11 were captured
>19-20 May 1996, during one of coastal NY's largest spring landbird flights in
>recent decades, whereas the other seven were captured on later spring dates.
>Thus I would tend to agree with Scott's perception of this species as a very
>late spring migrant--much later than Least, and similar in overall timing to
>Willow and Alder.
It should be noted that Least and Willow breed in southern NYS, and in large
numbers at much more southerly latitudes, so it is not terribly surprising to
see a few of these species here toward the early end of their respective
passage distributions: e.g., a Least Flycatcher or two at the end of April, vs.
the median date of 12 May for migrant Leasts at Fire Island; or an early Willow
setting up territory around 10 May, vs. the median date of 1 June for migrant
Willow/Alders at Fire Island.
Yellow-bellied does not breed anywhere south of NYS (maybe a few in the
Poconos), thus I would tend to think that the dates of territory occupancy in
northern New York would follow closely upon the dates of migratory arrival in
the New York City area.
Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
From: [email protected]
[[email protected]] on behalf of Tom Fiore
[[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2011 2:28 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Central Park, NYC 4/25 (incl. YTWA report & much, much
more, Varied Thrush also still there...)
I may respond on-list to Scott Haber's thoughful response to an early Empidonax
sighting (by me) reported here & seen on Sunday, 4/24, a putative
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, the ID of which I'm reasonably sure of (seen & heard
singing, not calling, at fairly close range in Riverside Park, Manhattan) - and
am interested to try and look up records from the region of this and other
Empidonax species, including any available specimen & banding records as well
as any video-audio-photo records, and sight reports in the early season,
particularly any before May 1st. This is not the first Yellow-bellied
Flycatcher I have seen & heard singing &.or calling in New York City in the
beginning stages of the spring push of neotropical-wintering migrants 9as
opposed to shorter-distance migrant species that may primarily overwinter in
the southern U.S. or nearby, such as Pine Warbler & any number of others that
appear as early as March in our area almost each spring - I do not agree that
Yellow-bellied is "among the last" and while I respect the writing of John M.C.
Peterson as regards breeding information for New York, I do not think it
reflects accurately on the status of migrants in the southern section of the
state, with regards to this species of Empidonax. It would be interesting to
read and hear from any others who have looked as well as listened carefully to
the Empidonax group here in NY and nearby states.
Good birding,
Tom Fiore,
Manhattan
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