Summary

Flycatchers of North America

Flycatchers are notoriously difficult to identify and arguably one of the last frontiers of field identification in North America. Join Cin-Ty Lee, coauthor of the recent Princeton Field Guide Series to North American Flycatchers for a lecture and tutorial on the ins and outs of flycatcher identification. This tutorial will be relevant to both beginners and experts. To the beginner, the thought of studying flycatchers seems daunting, but in this tutorial, we will learn first how to look at a flycatcher, focusing on overall impression rather than a single field mark. For example, how does one tell if a flycatcher has a long or short tail, a long or short bill, or strong or weak wingbars? We will emphasize a holistic approach, where one focuses on the combination of structure and shape, plumage contrasts, vocalizations, behavior, habitat and seasonal abundance to arrive at an identification. For the more advanced birders, we will touch on some of the most challenging identifications, from Empidonax to pewees to the yellow-bellied kingbirds, including silent Couch’s and Tropical. 

Bio

Cin-Ty Lee grew up in southern California. He has been a professor of geology at Rice University in Houston, Texas for 22 years with research focused on critical minerals and volcanoes. He has been an avid birder since he was 10 years old. Over the years, he has coauthored numerous articles on the identification of challenging groups of birds, such as the pewees, dowitchers, female orioles, pipits, and loons. His most recent contributions are the two volume Princeton Field Guide Series to Flycatchers of North America. Together with his coauthor Andrew Birch, they are working on the third volume, an expanded photographic and illustrated guide. While he’s not working on flycatchers, he is busy recording and analyzing nocturnal flight calls of migrating birds in Houston, Texas, with a specific interest in monitoring grassland sparrow populations.