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Great Crested Flycatcher in Highly Aberrant Plumage??



This week I got a call from the local wildlife shelter, asking me to look at
a very young bird they thought might be a Great Crested Flycatcher, but with
a very strange plumage.

The bird did seem to have the overall shape of a flycatcher, and it came
from a residential area.  As to its being a Great Crested Flycatcher I would
tend to trust the judgment of the staff of the wildlife shelter in that they
see so many young birds constantly.  (They had a young Orchard Oriole there
during my visit, as well as the young of many other species--Blue Jays,
Mockingbirds, Robins, etc.)

Anyway, if the bird was a Great Crested Flycatcher, or any other bird found
in North Carolina, it had a very aberrant plumage.

The bird was yellowish colored virtually all over, with a dark wide band
down the back, and some dark in the tips of the outer primaries as I recall.
(I understand that Jamie Cameron has taken some pictures of the bird.)

If this bird survives to adulthood and a birder were to spot it, he/she
might well identify it as a Great Crested Flycatcher (if that is indeed what
it is), based on size, posture, call, etc.  But, if they were to see a bird
in this plumage merely as a fly-by, they would forever be asking themselves
"What in the hell was that bird I saw back in 2001?"

                                           John Fussell
                                           Morehead City, NC
                                           jfuss@clis.com