Figure 351. Apart from a spring vagrant found on 14 June 1998 at Gazos Creek in San Mateo County, all California records of the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher fall between 13 September and 20 October.

 

Figure 352. This first-fall Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher, aged by its tapered rectrices, was photographed on 26 September 1990 in Goleta, Santa Barbara County (1990-163; Richard G. Jeffers).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SULPHUR-BELLIED FLYCATCHER Myiodynastes luteiventris Sclater, 1859

Accepted: 14 (82%)	Treated in Appendix H: yes
Not accepted: 3	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 0	Color image: page H-24

This flycatcher breeds from southeastern (and recently central) Arizona southward along Mexico’s Pacific slope, and from eastern Nuevo León southward along Mexico’s Atlantic slope, to Costa Rica. The wintering grounds are in northern South America. In the West, the species occurs casually from Colorado (NAB 57:90, 143) to northwestern Baja California (NAB 57:121, 122); records are also scattered from New Mexico eastward to southern Florida. Individuals have wandered remarkably far north, to southern Ontario, Massachusetts, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.

Starting with the first record—of a bird present from 22 September to 5 October 1974 at Big Sycamore Canyon, Ventura County—the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher has established a neat pattern of vagrancy to coastal California (Figure 351). Apart from a 14 June 1998 record of an apparent spring overshoot at Gazos Creek in San Mateo County, all have occurred between 13 September and 20 October. This flycatcher’s pattern of fall dispersal to California closely resembles that of another Middle American species, the Yellow-green Vireo (cf. Figure 370). California’s first eight Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers were found between San Diego and Santa Barbara Counties, but each of the six records since 1991 comes from farther north; see also Appendix H.

The Variegated Flycatcher (Empidonomus varius) and Piratic Flycatcher (Legatus leucophaius) both bear superficial resemblances to the Sulphur-bellied, and each has been recorded in the United States (Abbott and Finch 1978, AOU 1998, Lockwood 2000). Even more similar is the Streaked Flycatcher (M. maculatus), a migratory species that breeds north to eastern Mexico and is as yet unrecorded in the United States. Observers should be aware of the possibility of these species eventually reaching California. See Howell and Webb (1994, 1995) and Erickson and Terrill (1996) for information on identification.