Possible Nutting's Flycatcher, Rio Grande Village of Big Bend National Park

*UPDATE* 12 Dec 2013 This bird continues to be seen and photographed.  Antonio has retrieved additional photos and video.  Written description of vocalization differences between this bird and neighboring Ash-throated Flycatcher are promising.
HOWEVER, recorded audio of the possible Nutting's vocalization STILL NEEDS to be obtained.  

Remember that playback is prohibited in National Parks.  Not necessary here anyways..

*UPDATE* North American Rare Bird Alert (NARBA) "Dec 9: negative reports."


On Dec. 7th, an interesting Myiarchus flycatcher was photographed by Antonio Cantu near the Rio Grande Village campground at Big Bend National Park. It was seen along a paved service road.

Heavily cropped photos from Antonio Cantu (his original files are HUGE):

7 Dec 2013, possible Nutting's Flycatcher, © Antonio Cantu

7 Dec 2013, possible Nutting's Flycatcher, © Antonio Cantu

There have been two Ash-throated Flycatchers reported from the RGV campground since late November, so it's possible that 2-3 Myiarchus are in the area, just to keep folks on their toes.

Photos of a VERY bright-bellied Ash-throated Flycatcher were taken by Mark Flippo on Dec. 8th from the campground, so it's not a very cut-and-dry search.

8 Dec 2013, Ash-throated Flycatcher, © Mark Flippo

8 Dec 2013, Ash-throated Flycatcher, © Mark Flippo

And the search continues with Kelly Bryan and Carolyn Ohl-Johnson on the trail today... will keep everyone updated as we know. Will try to post additional photos as possible.

*** This would be a second state record if confirmed, for all NUFL posts on the blog, please check the tag in the side bar, or click here: Nutting's Flycatcher.

The ultimate goal is audio, due to tricky visual ID - for that, please see our coverage of Chris Benesh's commentary and spectrogram work on the first bird here.