L.A. & 5MR Lifer: Great Crested Flycatcher

A �promotion� at my job has led to more work, and less birding. That�s what you get for a raise, I guess. Less birding means fewer posts, because I�ve got less to write about and no time to do it.� But I made sure to get out this Saturday morning to see if I could find any good migrants. And rather than chase the rarities that have already been found, I stayed faithful to my 5MR and hoped I could find something good near home.

My chosen spot was the campus of Loyola Marymount University (LMU). It�s an infrequently birded spot with a good number of trees that has produced some decent vagrant warblers in the past (Hooded, Canada, and Cape May). I didn�t get out at the break of dawn, but was walking around by 8:30am.� The most interesting thing I found during the first half hour was fellow birder Russ Stone. He had a similar report as me � few migrants. I moved on without much hope, headed for a spot in the NE part of campus where there are a bunch of tall eucalyptus trees that often attract migrants. To my delight, I found a Summer Tanager. It�s not much of a rarity. There�s one or more in my 5MR just about every year. But I hadn�t found one yet this year. A Red-breasted Nuthatch in the same spot was actually rarer for my 5MR. Nothing to blog about, but a good walk.

Summer Tanager

Just after lunchtime, word went out on WhatsApp that one of the young birders taking LA County by storm, Henry Chiu, had found a possible Great Crested Flycatcher at LMU. It was reported near the NE parking lot, just the place I had found the Summer Tanager that morning. When the GPS coordinates went out for the flycatcher, it was in the very same stand of eucalyptus. I definitely hadn�t seen anything that looked like a myarchus flycatcher while I stood in the parking lot watching the trees for 20 minutes. But since this would be not just a 5MR, but an L.A. County lifer, I decided to head back

Henry was still there when I showed up. Delightfully, it wasn�t 5-10 minutes before we found the flycatcher. It had a bright yellow belly and a dark gray chest and head that made it clear it wasn�t an Ash-throated Flycatcher. The bird was generally cooperative and stayed in view for the next 30 minutes as other birders started to arrive. With just a half dozen prior reports for LA County (the last a one-day wonder in 2020), this was a bird that was likely to draw a crowd. The ID of Great Crested Flycatcher was confirmed by birders better than I (the white-edged tertials, for the nerds out there, is a key field mark, as it the pale base of the bill). I left before the crowd arrived, happy for only my second 5MR lifer of the year.

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Great Crested Flycatchers are found in the eastern half the country, from Maine to Florida, and east to the Great Plains. Despite their name, the bird doesn�t show much of a crest. Preferring the canopy of trees, it�s not always easy to see. I�d seen it in 5 different states before today, including in NYC this summer, and a couple of times in Costa Rica, where it winters.

The story is another reason why it�s good to bird your 5MR. It turns out that Henry was at LMU, in the northeast parking lot, looking for the Summer Tanager I had found that morning when he found the Great Crested Flycatcher. That�s the wonderful thing about birding. One person finds one good bird, other birders head to that spot, and more good birds are found.