First-of-season: Hammond's Flycatcher

We captured our first Hammond's Flycatcher of 2019! Flycatchers are often tough to identify to species; in my opinion, they're one of the few groups that are easier to identify in the field while birding rather than in-the-hand. Vocalizations are key to identifying the species of the bird. In-the-hand, the bird is quiet and we rely on a series of measurements and calculations to determine the species. For starters, we examine feather shape of certain feathers, the relative length of primary feathers, tail length, wing length, bill width and length. Sometimes this isn't enough. If we are unable to identify the species we must release the bird without a band.