Sowing wheat

On the morning of October 16^th 2009 I went walking up the closed road to Point Sal in Corallitos Canyon near Guadalupe California. There are some willows along a small creek as well as grass, and chaparral. There are a few farm buildings in the area. I saw an odd bird with a blue-gray crown, some reddish orange on the breast and a white scalloppy belly. It was in the top of a medium sized Eucalyptus tree. I took a few distant pictures. The bird never let me get a picture from the side and never went down lower in the tree for a better picture. I did not know what it was but the blue on the head and small bill made me think of maybe some bluebird plumage I had never seen. I was having a busy fall so I forgot about the bird. Looking at the pictures now I wonder if it could be a first year Mugimaki Flycatcher Ficedula mugimaki. (Temminck 1836) Mugimaki Flycatcher is a very rare vagrant to Britain with one record: First-winter male, Sunk Island Battery, Stone Creek, Humberside, 16-17 November 1991 (Birding World 4: 392-395). B.O.U. placed this bird in Category D because the species was known to have been in trade at the time of the occurrence. There is a wobbly record from Treviso, Italy, on 29 October 1957.

“Mugimaki Flycatcher, Length 13 cm. Highly migratory species of eastern Asia. Only North American record is from Shemya Island, Alaska, on 24 May 1985, supported by marginal photos. Note long wings.” (National Geographic field guide to the birds of North America) “In females and juveniles the black is replaced by brownish-gray and the rusty red by a yellowish-rust. (Birds of the USSR) The Mugimaki is also called Robin Flycatcher because it looks a little like the real Robin. There is also a small note in American Birds v. 39 p. 339, but no picture, about the Shemya I. bird which is online at S.O.R.A.

The B.O.U. Committee was unable to find compelling evidence of long-distance westwards vagrancy by this species. But Andrew H. J. Harrop in a 2007 British Birds article (Eastern Promise: The arrival of far-eastern passerine vagrants in Autumn) stated that the Mugimaki Flycatcher , although known from the bird trade; it is scarce in trade. In addition, Harrop discusses the autumn migration patterns of the Mugimaki Flycatchers in Beidaihe and Hong Kong. (Beidaihe = first half of October) (Hong Kong from mid October; peak third week of November) Harrop concludes: “…autumn arrivals in western Europe of eastern passerine vagrants which have travelled farther than birds on conventional routes tend to mirror their normal movements (in term of timing); they therefore occur earlier than might be expected based on simple calculations of their normal speed and distance of movement. Those records which accord with this pattern deserve serious consideration.” There is a similarity between western European vagrancy of Siberian passerines and Alaska, and California ones??? (Tove 1988, Gilroy & Lees Brit. Birds v. 96, No. 9 2003, Sullivan, Stonechat on San Clemente NAB v. 60 No. 2, etc.) The timing of this bird on October 16^th matches the Hong Kong & Beidaihe autumn migration dates inferring this was a natural vagrant to California. On September 30, 2007 there was an Old-World Flycatcher sounded reasonably good for Mugimaki Flycatcher in Seaside, California near Monterey. (Roberson Creagrus.com)

The Mugimaki Flycatcher breeds in E Russia, N China and Japan, wintering in Southeast Asia . A reverse/180 degree or mirror migration does not exactly explain this bird in central California. The bird occurred during a fairly strong El Nino. There has been shown to be a connection between El Nino/ENSO on the spring fallout of Asian bird species on Attu Island. (Hameed et al 2009)

“Young male. In general like the adult female, but much paler orange on the breast, with two buffy-white bars across the wing, composed of the tips to the median and greater coverts ; sides of face grey, the cheeks more or less blackish ; tail-feathers broadly white at base of outer web.

Young female. Like the young male, but with no white at the base of the tail-feathers.

Adult female. Different from the male. General color above olive-brown, lighter on the rump, where it is yellower ; upper tail coverts blackish ; tail brown, white at the base of the outer webs of the feathers; least wing-coverts olive like the back ; remainder of the coverts brown, edged with olive, the greater sories tipped with white ; primary-coverts and quills brown, narrowly edged with olive, the inner secondaries with white ; lores yellowish buff; round the eye a ring of buffy-white feathers ; ear-coverts olive, with narrow whitish shaft lines; cheeks slightly shaded with grey: under surface of body as in the male, but not so deep orange. Total length 4-5 inches, wing 0-4, tail 2 9, tarsus 0-6.”

(Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum volume IV. Sharpe 1879)

Here are three of the crappy photos:

Mugimaki Flycatcher 1st

Mugimaki Flycatcher 2nd

Mugimaki Flycatcher 3rd

If it is a Mugimaki fly and not just a weird bluebird I think it is a first year bird but I am not sure of the sex.

Hameed, Sultan, Henry H. Norwood, Michael Flanagan, Steven Feldstein, Chien-hsiung Yang, 2009: The Influence of El Niño on the Spring Fallout of Asian Bird Species at Attu Island. Earth Interact., 13, 1-22.