BREEDING RECORD

GrayFlycatcher: a new breeding bird for Canada

Richard J. Cannings

nax wrightiOis the Empidonax the GreatHEGRAY Basin, FLYCATCHER breeding in (EMPIDO- pinyon- juniperwoodland, sagebrush, and open, arid PonderosaPine woods (A.O.U. 1983). In the early 1970sit extendedits rangenorth into southernWashington (Fig. 1), where it was first found breed- ing at WenasPark, Yakima County,in 1972 (Larrison, 1971; Yaich and Lar- rison 1973). By 1974 Gray Flycatchers 'N:ewp•t:!:.' '.'.':.:'-::::::'::::'::' werevery commonin Klickitat County and the WenasPark area (Lavers 1975) and were alsopresent at Robinson Can- yon, a few kilometers north of Wenas =:IDAHO --. Park (D.R. Paulson,pers. comm.).This Othello ,::.:.:::.::-::.?::-:::.:: . northwardmovement continued and by 1980Gray Flycatcherswere breeding in OkanoganCounty, Washington,within 75 kilometers of the Canadian border (empty nestfound and femalewith egg in oviduct collectednear Twisp, June 23, 1980,by S. Rohwer,Burke Museum, University of Washington#32868; 3 birds at Leader L., Omak, August20, .. ...:=.:: 1980, Rogers 1981). This note docu- ments the first breeding record of the Gray Flycatcherin Canada. The first Gray Flycatcher reported from Canadawas a vagrantmist-netted and photographedat Toronto, Ontario, on September 11, 1981 (Goodwin 1982). On June 19, 1984, Hue and Jo Ann MacKenzie observed a probable Gray Flycatcheralong Camp McKinney Road, 10 kilometerseast of Oliver, Brit- ishColumbia. Their detaileddescription of the bird, includingthe characteristic Figure1. GrayFlycatcher records (closed circles) and breedingsites (starred circles) Jkom tail-pumping,is quite convincing,but Washingtonand British Columbia, taken Jkom American Birds and othersources mentioned unfortunatelythe bird did not call and in the text. Yearsgiven are thefirst yearsGray Flycatchers were recorded Jkom each site; was not photographed. stipplingindicates the range of ponderosa pine (from US.F.S. 1965).

376 AmericanBirds, Fall 1987 Above:Nesting habitat of the Gray Flycatcher:open PonderosaPine Jbrest with a scatteredunderstory of antelope-brushand sagebrush.Right: Adult Gray Flycatcheron nest 10 kdlometers east of Oliver, British Columbia,August 3, 1986. Note long bill, lower mandiblepale withdark tip, inconspicuouswhite eye- ring,and pearl gray coloration of upperparts.Photos/ Steve Cannings.

On May 18, 1986,I heardthe distinc- tive ' chelepchelep . . . chelepsweet.t' songof a Gray Flycatcherat the same spot as the 1984 sighting.On the same day, a secondbird was heard about 7 kilometers to the southwestby Wayne Weber, SydneyCannings, and Hue and Jo Ann MacKenzie. The first bird was photographedand its songrecorded. It cial Museum (B.C.P.M.) Photoduplicate (Pinus ponderosa)on a branch 1.87 wasseen by at least 18 observerson May File #1103, and in the National Mu- metersabove the ground, the nest was 18 and 19, but the secondbird was never seum of Natural Sciences,Ottawa. looselyconstructed of sagetwigs, grass, heard or seen again. To our pleasant Several areas of suitable habitat small feathers,thistle down, and a few surprise,the number of singingbirds at within 30 kilometers of Oliver were pine needles.It containedtwo eggsand the Camp McKinney Road site in- searched without success until June 14 a cowbirdegg on July 10 and four eggs creasedsteadily, with two on May 20, when 1 discovereda secondgroup of at and a cowbirdegg on July 18. The cow- four on May 29, and thirteen on June least four Gray Flycatcherssinging be- bird eggwas destroyed with a needleon 1. Thesebirds were apparently restricted tween Trout and Shinglecreeks 5 to 8 the latter date, and the incubatingadult to an area of about 70 hectares;birds kilometers southwest of Summedand, photographed.One of the flycatcher in the center of the area were singing B.C., about 50 kilometers north of eggswas subsequently found broken be- about 150 meters apart. Additional Oliver.The songsof two of thesebirds low the nest and two others failed to photographsand tape recordingswere were tape recorded on June 17. hatch. The latter eggs were collected taken throughoutthis period;the sono- In the first half of June, intensive (B.C.P.M. #2212); one containeda very gramsof thesongs exactly match the g• searches for nests were made at the small embryo and the other an almost and g2 elementsof Gray Flycatcher Camp McKinney site,but it wasn'tuntil completelydeveloped chick. The fourth songsillustrated in Johnson(1963, p. July 6 that a pair of Gray Flycatchers egghatched July 27 andthe youngbird 157). All photographs and sonograms was seencarrying nest material and an left the nest August 10. The nest was mentioned in this note have been de- almost finished nest was found. Placed later collected(to B.C.P.M.). positedin the British Columbia Provin- againstthe trunk of a PonderosaPine The habitat of both sitesis open pon-

Volume41, Number 3 377 alongthe dry eastslopes of the Cascades. Suitablehabitat extendsto the Thomp- son Valley,200 kilometersnorthwest of the present range limit in British Co- lumbia, and there seemsto be nothing to prevent the continued northward movementof Gray Flycatchers.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Steve and Jean Canningsfor their many hours of work searchingfor, finding, photographing, and observingthe nest describedin this note. I alsothank Harry Nehls, Dennis Paulson,Tim Reynolds,Dan Stephens, Chuck Trost, and Wayne Weber for providing information on the present distribution and status of Gray Fly- catchersin the Pacific Northwest; Ned Johnsonfor confirming the identifica- tion of the British Columbia birds; and Hue and Jo Ann MacKenzie for pro- viding excellent details of their 1984 sighting.Sydney Cannings and Wayne Weber commented on an early draft of the manuscript.

Just-fledgedjuvenile Gray Flycatcher beside nest just east of Oliver. British Cohtmbia. August 10, 1986. Photo/SteveCannings. LITERATURE CITED

AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION. derosa pine forest, with scatteredAn- Idaho (Fig. 1), Gray Flycatchersare es- 1983. Check-list of North American telope Brush (Purshiatridentata) and sentiallyrestricted to juniper and sage- Birds.Sixth ed. AmericanOrnithologists' Threetip Sagebrush(Artemisia tripar- brush habitatsin Oregonand alongthe Union, Washington,D.C. tita) at Oliver and Buckbrush (Ceano- southernedge of Idaho (Burleigh 1972; BURLEIGH, T. D. 1972. Birds of Idaho. Caxton Printers, Caldwell. thusvelutinus) at Summerland.Dusky H. Nehls, E.J. Larrison. C. Trost, and GOODWIN, C. E. 1982. Ontario Region. Flycatchers(E. oberholsert3were also D. Stephens,pers. comm.). Recent re- Am. Birds 36:171-174. common at both sites, but were more ports of Gray Flycatchers in northern JOHNSON, N. K. 1963. Biosystematicsof evidentin the moisterhabitat typical of Oregon have been from deciduoushab- siblingspecies of flycatchersin the Em- small draws. itats alongcreeks in grasslandand agri- pidonax hammondii-oberholseri-wrightii Exactlywhen Gray Flycatchersbegan cultural lands (H. Nehls, pers. comm.); complex. U. CaliJ. Pub. Zool. 66:79-238. breedingin Canada is open to debate; the 1972 report from Othello, Wash- LARRISON, E. J. 1971. Sight recordof the Gray Flycatcherin Washington.Murrelet the discoveryof 17 singingbirds up to ington.was from a similar habitat (Lav- 52:40. 65 kilometers north of the border in ers 1975). A singingGray Flycatcherre- LAVERS, N. 1975. The statusof the Gray 1986 would suggestthat smaller num- ported near Newport, Pend Oreille Flycatcherin WashingtonState. Western bers may have been overlookedfor two County,Washington, in 1985 (E.J. Lar- Birds 6:25-57. or three years. However, the known rison) had probably moved east from ROGERS.T. 1981. NorthernRocky Moun- range of the species has expanded the species'known range in Okanogan tain-IntermountainRegion. Am. Birds 35:205-298. northward at least 140 kilometers in the County. Lavers(1975) proposedthat the U.S. FOREST SERVICE. 1965. The sylvics last six years.and 320 kilometerssince rangeexpansion into WashingtonState of foresttrees of the United States.Agri- 1970. This expansion seems to have involved a population of Gray Fly- culture Handbook 271. U.S.F.S., taken place in an almost linear lhshion catchers moving down the Deschutes U.S.D.A. through PonderosaPine forestsalong River in northernOregon and spreading YAICH, J. A. and E. J. LARRISON. 1973. the eastside of the CascadeMountains; northward through Klickitat County, Nesting record and behavioral observa- apparently very little range expansion Washington. This population was ob- tionsof the Gray Flycatcherin Washing- ton. Murrelet 54:14-16. hasbeen noted in the northeasternpart viouslyvery successfulin the openpon- of the speciesrange. Although Ponde- derosa pine forests of south-central --Cowan Vertebrate Museum, rosa Pine forestsare common in parts Washingtonand quickly spread north- Universityof British Columbia, of Oregon and central and northern ward in that habitat, which is common Vancouver,B.C., Canada V6T 2A9

378 AmericanBirds, Fall 1987