[Tweeters] Taiga flycatcher in Vancouver

[Robert O'Brien via Tweeters]

Sorry, but as usual I just couldn't resist.
===============================================
*Every Bird Has a Story..*
Well, not everyone does, but this one does.  For me, anyhow. Taiga
Flycatcher, ( a great NA rarity now in Vancouver BC);   formerly called
Red-throated Flycatcher. Now split.

Long ago, I had a business meeting in Hokkaido, Japan.  .  My wife was
invited..

After the meeting we went to stay at a B&B run by a Japanese Birder.
We arrived in the afternoon for dinner.  Next morning I got up just at
first light and walked along the nearby roads looking for birds.  No
camera, light was far too dim. Misty, light rain. A ;small thrush flew
across the road and landed.  Looked and behaved just like a Hermit Thrush,
but the spots, instead, were rings, like bubbles sorta.  Pretty
distinctive.  Easy to ID from my Japan field guide   Cool.  I knew nothing
of its detailed status but it seemed to be somewhat rare.and this was
migration time. Headed North?

Upon returning to the B&B for breakfast I told the 'Keeper' of the B&B of
my sighting, showed the picture in the Field Guide.  His English wasn't
great, hut be could understand the picture.  He seemed skeptical.  Not a
great surprise. So then we asked about further, nearby birding and the host
told us about a nearby small park that would have migrants.  We went.  We
soon discovered a small flycatcher with a red throat.  Easy to ID from the
book.  Red-throated Flycatcher, now Taiga.  The light was good, the bird
was tame and I got some photos.

We returned to the B&B and I showed him the Field Guide picture of what we
saw, the flycatcher..  Skepticism reigned supreme.  No surprises there
either.

Returning to the US I scanned the slides and emailed him a photo.  No
response via email.  No surprise there either.

5-10 years later I was looking at bird books in the famous Powell's
Bookstore, a very large Bird Book Selection.  There was a new book by Mark
Brazil.  An Anglo with a lot of experience in Japanese birding.  This was a
review of all birds recorded for Japan. In English.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I thought . I wonder...................................?
I opened the book to Red-breasted Flycatcher.  Yep, I got that right.
There was my record with the correct date, attributed to ..... you know
who.  And, of course, no mention of me. No surprise there either.

I bought Brazil's book at Powell's and I have the scanned photo.  I'm
satisfied.

Bob OBrien  Portland


On Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 12:18 PM Jerry Neufeld-Kaiser via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> Tweets, I was lucky enough to be visiting friends on BC coast when I heard

> of the mega-rarity in Vancouver: a taiga flycatcher.  These birds winter in

> southern Asia and summer in Siberia, and this is apparently only the 2nd

> North American record ever.  I was passing through Vancouver, and yes I did

> re-route to the Aquatic Center to find it.  I stood with a couple dozen

> hopefuls for an hour or so hoping it would show itself.  About 4:10 with

> the light starting to dim, I got a tip from a photographer I'd chatted

> with.  (Big thank you to whoever that was!)  So another birder and I walked

> a couple blocks to where we'd just been told the bird had been, and after a

> bit, there it was.  I had the pleasure of being the one to find it and then

> helping some others get looks at it, for about 10 minutes, as it moved

> steadily down a long fence, flycatching and showing its tail, before it

> flew off.  Perfect.  Victory is even better when it's snatched from the

> jaws of defeat.

>

> Jerry Neufeld-Kaiser (Whitney's driver)

> _______________________________________________

> Tweeters mailing list

> Tweeters at u.washington.edu

> http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20251231/6bdd7703/attachment.html>