Mystery Bird: Vermilion Flycatcher, Pyrocephalus rubinus

Oh! I recognize that one immediately. So I'm not going to say.

We get one of those around where I live once in a while, but so far I've never managed to see one.

If you've paged through your trusty field guide cover to cover a few hundred times, this bird certainly is, as Sibley describes it, "unmistakeable". But if you're just getting started, I'd suggest that you could narrow things down (as you usually can) by using the shape and size of the beak, along with the bird's overall silhouette, to try to narrow it down to a particular family.

This bird has fluffed up its feathers a bit, so it looks a little chunkier than usual. But the basic proportions still help place it in a particular part of the book. :-)

The general shape and size, and the bill shape, suggest a warbler to me, but I can't find anything more specific. My knowledge of non-British birds is minimal, though.
Does anyone know of a good online bird guide? The RSPB has a reasonable one, but it only covers UK birds, so not a lot of use for mystery birds.

We call him "Mr. Wonderful," but I wouldn't call him "unmistakable." It's amazing how often even adult males (the little guy in the photo is almost there) are confused with other red and black birds.

I'm thinking male Vermillion Flycatcher?

Bright red below and forehead, with a dark patch/thick stripe horizontally across the eye, getting wider towards the rear. Flycatchery beak (pointy for bugs) and look.

Sheri Williamson suggests that this one is immature; do mature males change color in non-breeding season (or as feathers wear)?

Jefrir, I use the Cornell Ornithology site. I don't know that it's the best, but I find it very helpful with varying ways to search (by shape as well as name) and a thing for similar birds to help me tell things apart.

Here's the Vermillion Flycatcher link that I used to check if there were other things I might be confusing: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Vermilion_Flycatcher/id

Without being able to even see the photo, Sheri's "Mr. Wonderful" (I assume, not Fleetwood Mac!) and John's "unmistakeable" would lead me to assume that this poem by Linda Pastan to be an appropriate reference to our "fiery-headed" friend:

Pierre Bonnard would enter
the museum with a tube of paint
in his pocket and a sable brush.
Then violating the sanctity
of one of his own frames
he'd add a stroke of vermilion
to the skin of a flower.
Just so I stopped you
at the door this morning
and licking my index finger, removed
an invisible crumb
from your vermilion mouth. As if
at the ritual moment of departure
I had to show you still belonged to me.
As if revision were
the purest form of love.

What a lovely piece of poetry!

David, "fiery-headed" being Pyrocephalus rubinus, the Vermilion Flycatcher- from the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: bright red cap, throat and unerparts; black eyeline, nape, back, wings, and tail.

wow, beautiful poem, david. but then, all you peeps make the mystery birds a real joy for me. just when you've amazed me most, one or another of you posts something new to make me even more pleased with this fun group of birders (of all experience levels!) who pop in here each day. i feel like i am out in the field with all of you, shivering in the cold, quietly peering through the 'scope and listening to you all talk about birds and seeing your steamy breath (made hot by drinking freshly brewed coffee) in the crisp morning air.

Bardiac: apparently Vermilion Flycatchers only molt once/year (I suspect that's true of all of the flycatchers, at least the N.Am. ones, but I don't know). Feather wear might have an impact, but other flycatchers actually molt either on their winter grounds (e.g. Dusky) or just before their fall migration (e.g. Hammonds -- a useful tip for fall migrants). That suggests that this bird, if an adult, should be in pretty fresh plumage. Indeed, if you look at the wings, they look very good -- sharply pointed primaries, clean edges, no obvious nicks or fraying. Similarly, the scattered red tufts on the head seem pretty crisp. A worn adult should be more evenly plumaged, as most of the red feathers in any one area would have worn more or less the same. And most adults would never show the yellow-orange color visible on the flanks.

The head plumage provides a quick "tell" for age on this bird: creamy feathers on the chin and mixed vermilion and dusky feathers above and behind the eye. An older male would also be darker on the back, but some (possibly young adults) fade from red on the breast to red-orange on the belly. Here's an after-second-year male in southeastern Arizona from January 20, 2008:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/4288865214_abe5eb9737.jpg

Paul,

I understand the same, that most of the adult Empiodonax species molt once they get to their wintering grounds after their Fall migration but in "late" winter, leaving up to a month before the juveniles, with Hammond's, Empidonax hammondii, being the "western" exception and the Acadian, Empidonax virescens, being the "eastern" equivalent.

For the record, adult Vermilions in my neck of the desert molt mid-summer through mid-fall, while juvenile males can be observed gradually acquiring their first adult plumage between late summer and early spring.

oops, sorry, I should have mentioned that "A Field Guide to Advanced Birding: Birding Challenges and How to Approach Them" by Kenn Kaufman (Roger Tory Peterson, editor) has comprehensive summaries of all the flycatchers, including molt and migration timing and various identification difficulties...

Hopefully I didn't obfuscate the issue as the Vermilion is of course not an Empidonax flycatcher- Sheri's information re. Vermilions is supported here on pages 13/14 indicating a definitive pre-basic molt occurring July-September, with the Fall migration occurring by late August (California) with extreme departure dates being September 12th in Texas and October 19th in Arizona.

...with extreme departure dates being September 12th in Texas and October 19th in Arizona.

This quote from the BNA account must refer to areas where the species is absent in winter, since Vermilions are found year round over a substantial portion of their range in Texas and Arizona.

Sheri, you are correct. The opening paragraph on the BNA Vermilions' migration section states that the species is "largely resident, but nothernmost breeding population in s. US and nw. Mexico and southernmost breeding populations in s. South America are migratory [but] some individiuals occasionally winter in the northernmost portion of the breeding range."

It appears to me that Anahuac, Texas is indeed outside the "year-round" distribution range and as do areas along the Mexican Gulf Coast, receives migrants from southern Nevada, the northernmost part of their Arizona range (you are in southeastern AZ?), southern New Mexico and far western Texas.

Any subtleties in the plumage brightness (given Paul's analysis of feather "freshness") is probably dependent upon any variation within individuals, as in some other species, or variations between subspecies, only two of the 12 possible, flammeus or mexicanus, being possible.

Thanks for the explanations about molting and maturation. I love the mystery bird gang.

One final note re. the coloration above- from Basic Texas Birds: A Field Guide by Mark Lockwood, "second- and even third-year males resemble fully adult males, but the red portions of the plumage are paler and can looked washed out"

"second- and even third-year males resemble fully adult males, but the red portions of the plumage are paler and can looked washed out"

That's certainly been my impression. The males with paler lower bellies often hold inferior territories, too, as you might expect for young whippersnappers.

Thanks Sheri! I think that also relates to the "advance" migration of those adult Empidonaces ahead of the juniors, presumably to land both that "best" tree and the girls before the rush!