Figure 344. Small numbers of Eastern Phoebes occur annually in California, most of them along the southern coast in late fall and winter. This adult, aged by rectrix shape, was photographed on 5 January 2003 at the San Jacinto Wildlife Area in Riverside County (David Furseth).

 

 

 

 

 

 

EASTERN PHOEBE Sayornis phoebe (Latham, 1790)

Accepted: 10 (77%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 3	CBRC review: records from 1971 through 19771
Not submitted/reviewed: NA	Color image: none

This phoebe’s northern breeding limit extends from the west-central Northwest Territories and northeastern British Columbia east to Nova Scotia. The southern limit stretches eastward from southeastern Colorado and west-central Texas, but does not reach the Gulf or southern Atlantic coasts. The wintering grounds spread from the Southeast south through central and eastern Mexico to northern Oaxaca. The species is a casual to rare visitor, especially in late fall and winter, across the West (north to southwestern Yukon and northern Alaska) and to the West Indies, and one bird reached the British Isles.

California’s first two Eastern Phoebes were preserved as specimens: a first-winter bird collected on 14 February 1901 near San Fernando in Los Angeles County (Swarth 1901, CAS 39528) and an individual collected on 7 March 1913 near Pacific Grove in Monterey County (Brooks 1913, MVZ 23461). The species quickly proved to be a very rare but regular late fall and winter vagrant to California, so it was removed from the review list after the Committee had evaluated only 13 records.

In California, most Eastern Phoebes are found on the southern coastal slope between early November and mid March (Small 1994). Claims of this species, particularly those before mid October and after mid April, must rule out the similar Willow Flycatcher (an early fall and late spring migrant, as well as a breeder, in the state) and members of the genus Contopus. The state’s earliest well-documented Eastern Phoebe was measured, weighed, and banded on 24 September 1988 at Southeast Farallon Island (Richardson et al. 2003, P. Pyle in litt.). About half of this island’s fall vagrants have arrived between 19 and 25 October (P. Pyle in litt.), and the same location claims four late spring records between 18 May and 8 June (DeSante and Ainley 1980, Richardson et al. 2003).

¹On the review list 1972–1978