Western Flycatcher, Burlingame State Park, Rhode Island, December 20, 2023

My wife and I took a family vacation to visit relatives in RI for the 2023 Christmas holidays.  I knew I wouldn’t have much of a chance for birding during the trip, but I thought maybe I could squeeze in at least a little time.  And since I used to live in New England and had good lists in all 6 states, I wasn’t too optimistic that there might be a statebird target to chase.  Instead, I was just looking forward to doing a bit of fun birding at some coastal hotspot nearby that I used to bird.  But almost as an afterthought I checked my eBird Needs Alerts for nearby states just in case.  One target popped up in RI – a Western Flycatcher.  That would be a great rarity to chase – a first record for RI.  And it was reasonably reliable, having been seen nearly daily since it was discovered on November 20. 

I had a target – now I needed to figure out the logistics.  The reports mentioned the bird was often seen near the naturalist’s house or nearby at camp sites 134 and 136.  With a bit of research I downloaded park maps and found the Flycatcher’s preferred locations.  I was all set to go the next afternoon.  I reached out to my good RI birding friend Don Heitzmann to see if he wanted to join me and luckily he was available.  Don had already seen the bird, and suggested we park at the Kettle Pond Visitor Center of the Burlingame SP as it would make for a shorter walk into the campground.  I was all ready to go, though I was a bit concerned that there were no reports of the Flycatcher (positive or negative) in the last 3 days.

I met Don in the early afternoon of the 20^th, and he led me on a short walk through the woods to get to the campground.  Soon we came to the naturalist’s house and sized things up – there was nice brushy habitat in the area, though some of it was in the shade.  On this cold December day I figured a Flycatcher would prefer to be feeding in the sun, so we focused on the sunnier brush.  But we didn’t see a single bird, and only heard a distant Cardinal and Carolina Wren.  This was looking bleak, so we headed over to camp sites 134 and 136.  But it was even worse there - we didn’t have a single bird. 

Since the habitat looked better at the naturalist’s house we decided to head back there to try again.  There we finally ran into a mixed flock of birds.  But despite our best efforts all we could find were the regular wintering New England species.  This wasn’t looking good.

Then I remembered a tree line and low hedgerow just south of the naturalist building that was in the full afternoon sun.  Maybe insects in that spot could be more active and support a feeding Flycatcher.  We made our way to this new spot and quickly found a small flock of Bluebirds and House Finches.  Then I noticed a flash of yellow as a bird flitted by.  I got my binoculars on it as it landed and we had our bird – the Western Flycatcher!  Key field marks included yellowish below, greenish yellow above, with a tear-drop shaped eye ring.  Here are my 2 best digi-binned shots of the bird.

Western Flycatcher was #336 for my RI state list, and my 442nd species in New England.

My statebird map for Western Flycatcher is copied in below.  (Note that this map assumes that the Cordilleran and Pacific-slope Flycatchers will be officially lumped once again as Western Flycatcher.)  The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range.  The cross-hatched states are the last 2 in its normal range where I’ve yet to see it.  And the brown-shaded states are those where I’ve seen Western Flycatcher as a rarity – NE, KS, and now RI.