[All photographs copyright, Gary Nunn 2014] – I always thought the southwest corner of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery looked nice for a good Empidonax find and sure enough today it delivered with a vocal, and occasionally showy, Least Flycatcher Empidonax minimus! I first heard this bird from some distance away making a repeated “pwit” call 5-10 times but then it fell silent. I hung around catching glimpses of a small Empidonax with very contrasty black-and-white wings. It started up calling again every few minutes and made some brief appearances on the cemetery fence line. I managed to get some nice photos with the Canon 400 DO lens before quickly returning to my car to fetch the big glass as well as a shotgun microphone. Patience waiting around eventually paid off and I got a nice recording of the repeated “pwit” calling and some super close photos on the fence line with the Canon 500 f4 lens.

The repeated bouts of “pwit” vocalizations, quite sharp sounding, are distinctive for this species which differs from Dusky and Gray Flycatcher both of which make a single softer “whit” call usually well spaced. I obtained a recording in which the bird calls a few times, it can be listened to below. The sound of Point Loma Water Treatment Plant is in the background!

Least Flycatcher Empidonax minimus recording, Point Loma, San Diego 20 Sep 2014

An almost identical calling bird, recorded by Andrew Spencer in New Hampshire, can be listened to at Xeno-Canto here:

This small Empidonax fits well the classic field marks for Least Flycatcher with very contrasty black-and-white wings, brownish gray (and olive?) upperparts, whitish throat, some gray on the chest sides, pale underparts with a faint yellow wash on the lower belly and undertail coverts, and a narrow but prominent looking equal width white eye ring. The lower mandible has patchy dusky markings on the distal sides and tip but is otherwise a rich orange-yellow color all around the base. I think the narrow “skinny” tail and black legs are also quite distinctive looking!