Now that we’ve all mastered the artwork of figuring out Empidonax flycatchers because of a sure area information revealed a yr in the past, it’s time to begin engaged on Kingbirds and Myiarchus flycatchers! I jest a bit, after all, birders won’t ever cease puzzling over Empids. However Subject Information to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees actually gave us a framework for identification that upped our stage of discourse and evaluation. The following quantity on this three-book sequence is now out: Subject Information to North American Flycatchers: Kingbirds and Myiarchus by Cin-Ty Lee, illustrated by Andrew Birch, and it’s as informative and well-organized and beautiful to have a look at because the Empid/Pewee quantity.
Sixteen species which were recorded in the US are lined: six Myiarchus flycatchers and ten Kingbird (Tyrannus) flycatchers. There may be additionally a bit on Hybrids. It’s an intriguing mixture of generally seen species like Nice Crested Flycatcher and Western Kingbird; species with geographic niches like Brown-crested Flycatcher and Thick-billed Kingbird; and real rarities, like Loggerhead Kingbird. As with the primary quantity, I used to be shocked to see the inclusion of a species that has solely been seen within the U.S. a handful of instances, solely to comprehend how vital it’s to have a useful resource that can assist birders differentiate amongst these very comparable trying birds.
Introductory Materials
Sixteen species, 190 pages. The information might be described as sixteen species accounts wrapped up in introductory textual content. Along with the overall introduction to the e-book’s materials, there are introductions to every genus: Myiarchus and Kingbirds (Tyrannus). These are important studying, possibly much more vital than the Species Accounts. As a result of, though these flycatcher teams don’t have the horny, difficult fame of Empidonax flycatchers, they are often complicated–ask any East coast birder making an attempt to determine if a vagrant chook with worn tail feathers is a Western Kingbird or a Cassin’s Kingbird. Or a birder making an attempt to determine if a medium-sized Myiarchus in Arizona is a Nuttings’s, Ash-throated, or Dusky-capped Flycatcher. Lee and Birch strongly imagine that even look-alike flycatcher species could be recognized utilizing a holistic strategy. This implies observing and noting “a mix of plumage and structural area marks, vocalizations, habits, habitat choice, and seasonal timing” (p. 11). The three introductions current a textbook on how to try this.
The introductions discuss first about know if the flycatcher you’re looking at is a Myiarchus or Kingbird, after which what area marks to focus on–whether or not to have a look at form or coloration or sample or dimension, and decide the all-important main projection. They talk about the consequences of age and molt on feathers (that Kingbird query above); what varieties of habits to look at (variations in the place they perch, territorial habits, flocking); hearken to vocalizations and browse spectograms; observe and decide habitat; and learn and use distribution maps.
Should you learn the primary e-book, chances are you’ll assume you recognize all this already and might skip the fabric. That will be a mistake, these are completely completely different flycatcher teams with nearly completely completely different options to study. Gone are the plates on eye-ring form, and decrease mandible coloration, in are plates on undertail sample (a function I knew was vital for warbler identification however had no thought was additionally vital for Myiarchus identification), nonetheless vital are plates on main projection and wing panel distinction. The Habitat part has been drastically elevated from the primary quantity, from a half-page of textual content and two work to 2 pages of textual content and twelve clear, pretty, helpfully captioned pictures. It’s one among a number of adjustments made by the authors in response to readers’ and reviewers’ feedback, and I discover it fascinating that there’s a demand for extra details about birds’ environments.*
I significantly just like the comparative plates within the genus introductions. Birch’s brilliantly exact illustrations of every species are specified by comparative plates, with Lee’s textual content describing the customarily delicate variations amongst them. For Myiarchus, we are able to examine comparative invoice dimension and form, crown shapes, physique coloration, chest distinction, face distinction, and, after all, undertail sample and coloration. Two side-by-side plates painting the numerous figuring out options of the 4 mostly occurring Myiarchus flycatchers in the US and Canada–Brown-crested, Nice Crested, Ash-throated and Dusky-capped–in a design that masterfully combines entire physique photos with close-ups of payments and tail feathers and undersides of payments and wings, all with exact explanatory notes. It’s a masterful instance of how scientific illustration can inform and be satisfying to have a look at, and I’d like to have these plates in mini card type to hold round with me once I go to California.
The Kingbird introductory chapter is shorter, partly as a result of there are much less vital options to review, partly as a result of the comparative plates are inserted all through the Species Accounts sections. There are two components to Kingbirds, a bit on “yellow-bellied Kingbirds” and a bit on “white-bellied Kingbirds.” Organizationally that is sensible. And I feel it additionally would make sense to put the 2 plates evaluating 4 yellow-bellied Kingbirds–Sofa’s, Tropical, Western, Cassin’s–at the start of that part, and the plates evaluating Tropical and Sofa’s Kingbird and Western and Cassin’s Kingbirds after their respective species accounts (poor Thick-billed Kingbird stands alone). I do want there was a notice someplace indicating the place they are often discovered, possibly within the desk of contents or a separate itemizing of comparative plates and even the Index. Folks seldom use area guides in a sequential method, they search for the knowledge they need after which transfer on. So, should you didn’t know these comparative plates existed, you would possibly miss them altogether. I do just like the nifty desk of vocalizations within the Kingbird introduction, which reveals which species give excessive pitched buzzes, brrrs, chEEs, squeaky notes, twitters, and pips. It’s an efficient strategy to talk the complicated range of vocalizations amongst these species.
Species Accounts
Species accounts differ in size from 5 to eight pages, and the size surprisingly shouldn’t be associated to the commonality of the species. Fork-tailed Flycatcher is a seven-page chook, partly as a result of the account features a vagrancy chart (one other new function). Every account begins with conventional data: frequent title, scientific title, and measurements. A Basic Identification part offers a thumbnail description of the species, together with when it resides in North America, common geographic space, habitats, vital behaviors, an outline of its bodily look (which can be fairly detailed), and knowledge on subspecies in North America. The Vocalizations part describes the species’ diagnostic and fewer diagnostic calls, twitters, chatters, and songs utilizing transliteration and comparisons, additionally describing the tempo and acoustic high quality of the sounds. (Within the Introduction, birders are directed to the Macauley Library of Sounds from Cornell College and the Xeno-canto web site for precise recordings and are cautioned towards extra use of playback.) The Habitat, Distribution, and Seasonal Standing part offers important data on habitat preferences, nest description (for species that breed in North America), breeding vary, migration patterns and when migration takes place, tendency for vagrancy and the place vagrancy often happens. The Related Species part goes into element about differentiate the species from comparable trying species, discussing variations in construction, plumage, and all of the options described within the introductory materials (which is why it’s so vital to learn it!). The depth of element could be spectacular: “The liner of Nutting’s mouth is orange as a substitute of the flesh-color or yellow of Ash-throated” (p. 79). (There are additionally very detailed instructions on differentiating Nutting’s tail hooks from Ash-throated tail hooks difficult by the dearth of tail hooks on juvenile Ash-throateds, however frankly I didn’t need to do this a lot typing.)
Complementing the textual content are spectograms of distinctive vocalizations, distribution/seasonality map and graphs, and the web page each birder will search for first, the plate of illustrations of the species. The spectrograms are a lot simpler to learn on this quantity, bigger and darker. The vary maps include an incredible quantity of data: breeding, non-breeding, and year-round vary in North, Central, and South America; migration routes for many species (together with subspecies migration routes), and vagrancy vary. Just like the vagrancy desk cited above, this can be a new, priceless addition to the sequence, particularly to Jap birders like me who could encounter many of the species on this information as vagrants. The season abundance charts and vagrancy charts, introduced as bar graphs, give a visualization for when birders can anticipate to see every species; many species have a number of seasonal charts depicting completely different geographic areas–eleven for Nice Crested Flycatcher! I do want that the important thing for studying the maps’ colours and features was on the within entrance or again cowl quite than web page 43. It’s a comparatively easy key, six colours and three varieties of traces, however I’ve a porous reminiscence and I ended up tabbing the web page.
The Species Accounts plates are instructional and exquisite. Birch has a deft, sleek method with traces and shapes, so every picture conveys the romance of the chook in addition to identification options. I’m significantly impressed by his method with coloration. These flycatchers are usually not essentially the most visible putting species within the avian world (with the doable exception of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher), however they do have their very own delicate magnificence of their shades of brown, grey, black and yellow and Birch conveys that very effectively. Species are depicted in facet profile, three-quarter profile, generally face-front, generally in flight. There are close-ups of vital options: for Myiarchus, undertails and undersides of payments and for some tertial feathers and, sure, mouth lining; for Kingbirds, sketches of main projection and wings in flight. The explanatory captions are in smaller fonts than within the first quantity, however nonetheless very legible.
As talked about above, there’s a chapter on Hybrids. I used to be shocked, I didn’t know this was doable, and the authors write that it’s certainly a uncommon incidence (although I did discover an article a few hybridization zone of Western Kingbirds and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers). The textual content discusses the varieties of hybrids which were reported and a chart reveals the combos visually, coloration coded for most certainly, very uncommon, and extremely unlikely (many of the squares). The plate reveals the three most reported hybrids: Western x Jap Kingbird, Tropical x Grey Kingbird, Western Kingbird x Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I don’t know the way usually this chapter shall be used, however I like its inclusion within the spirit of complete-ism.
Group and Again-of-the Ebook
Like Subject Information to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees, Subject Information to North American Flycatchers: Kingbirds and Myiarchus is well-organized and designed. There’s a luxurious in devoting a complete e-book to 2 genera, there’s room for clean house if a map or textual content doesn’t fill the entire web page, readable fonts, and full-page separations of sections. These web page dividers embrace work by Birch, one other new function of this quantity. Extra impressionistic than his scientific illustrations, the work are an interesting addition, one thing we don’t ordinarily discover in a area information and most welcome.
Customers could use the Desk of Contents or the Index to find introductory chapters and Species Accounts. The Desk of Contents checklist Species Accounts by textual content and chook picture, a format that shall be useful to birders who are usually not certain of the title of the chook they’ve seen and need to determine. The Index helpfully lists identification options like “coloration” and “primaries” in addition to chook names (frequent names solely). The three-page Bibliography lists books and articles on chook identification and distribution standing, together with chapters from Birds of the World, all in impeccable quotation type. It’s lacking one merchandise, the chapter on “Yellow-bellied Kingbirds” in Higher Birding: Ideas, Instruments & Ideas fort the Subject by George L. Armistead and Brian L. Sullivan (PUP, 2016), a twelve-page article with comparative pictures.
The checklist of Helpful Web sites continues to be brief however has one noteworthy addition–Surfbirds. This web site, one of many oldest birding presences on the Web, is now the archive for “updates to all volumes of the present Subject Information to Flycatchers of North America.” A implausible thought! Surfbirds.com might not be essentially the most refined web site on the Web, however it’s free and presumably will proceed to supply its mixture of journey studies and identification articles (together with a few of Lee and Birch’s earlier articles).
Authors
Authors Cin-Ty Lee and Andrew Birch are birders and birding writers and artists with day jobs, which makes the publication of their two (and the forthcoming third) books on North American flycatchers an astounding achievement. Cin-Ty Lee is Harry Carothers Wiess Professor of Geology, Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences within the Division of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Rice College, Houston, the place he “investigates how our planet has advanced with time, from the deepest components of the Earth’s mantle to the continental crust and to the environment” in addition to birding on campus and writing cool birding notes that he generally reveals on the social media website previously generally known as Twitter. Andrew Birch is well-known within the Los Angeles birding group (I had the pleasure of assembly him a number of years in the past at Silver Lake Reservoir, the place he confirmed me the place to search for the long-staying Lucy’s Warbler), the place he is among the leaders of the Los Angeles Birders group. He’s a co-illustrator of Subject Information to the Birds of the Center East (1996) and has illustrated many different magazines and articles. Lee and Birch have co-authored area identification articles on birds that aren’t flycatchers, together with dowitchers, loons, pipits, and orioles, for Birding and Texas Birds Annual.
Conclusion
Subject Information to North American Flycatchers: Kingbirds and Myiarchus by Cin-Ty Lee and Andrew Birch is an distinctive identification information, modern in its give attention to holistic identification introduced by way of detailed, readable textual content; scientific illustrations; diagrammatic displays of vocalizations and geographic distribution, and explanations of put all of it collectively to provide you with an identification. The authors have improved on the primary quantity on this sequence, Subject Information to North American Flycatchers: Empidonax and Pewees, in a variety of methods, together with increasing data on habitat and vagrancy, bettering the readability of the spectograms, and creating abstract comparability plates. Many of the birds on this quantity are discovered within the west, however I feel Jap birders will discover it helpful too. Perhaps extra helpful since Kingbird vagrants usually presents knotty identification questions and we Jap birders usually don’t even know the place to begin, what options to have a look at apart from outer tail feathers. Slim, transportable and attractively priced, they can be utilized within the area or subsequent to your pc as you study images, they’re additionally enjoyable to flick through.
These two books are the one identification area guides that focus solely on flycatchers. There shall be a 3rd e-book within the sequence. Cin-Ty Lee tells me that they don’t have a reputation but, however the e-book shall be extra technical, have a big format, and can embrace all of the plates of the primary two quantity in addition to images. It should cowl all of the species of the primary two books plus Phoebes, Kiskadees, Elaenias, our one Tyrannulet and every other North American flycatchers on the market. It’s one thing to look ahead to. In the meantime, now we have these two volumes. I noticed an Jap Kingbird immediately in an area park, simply identifiable by its patterned black, grey, and white physique and brief flights on the tippy tops of the timber. Quickly the Empids will arrive–Least, Willow, Acadian, generally Alder and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers. And the Jap Wooden-pewees. I must reread the information to Empidonax and Pewees, brush up on my Empid identification. After which in September I’ll reread e-book two’s part on yellow-bellied Kingbirds and Myiarchus flycatchers earlier than my journey to California. I need to be ready, I need to know my Western from my Tropical from my Cassin’s from my Sofa’s, my Ash-throated from my Dusky-capped. There isn’t any magic wand for flycatcher identification, nevertheless it’s good to know that there’s a well-thought out, fantastically illustrated methodology.
*Cin-Ty Lee kindly answered my questions in regards to the third quantity and adjustments from the primary quantity on the final minute. Thanks!
** https://www.cintylee.org/about
Subject Information to North American Flycatchers: Kingbirds and Myiarchus
by Cin-Ty Lee; illustrated by Andrew Birch
Princeton Univ. Press, April 2024 (U.Ok. June 2024)
flexibound, 200pp. dimension: 5 x 8 in., illus: 56 coloration + 18 b/w illus. 17 maps. 51
ISBN: 9780691240640
$19.95/£16.99