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Western birds wander east
Why Inca Dove, Lucy's Warbler, Brown-crested Flycatcher, and many other western and southwestern bird species turned up east of the Mississippi River in October and November 2011.
Published: December 22, 2011  Broad-billed Hummingbird
Among them:
An Inca Dove (pictured in our rarities gallery) and a Broad-billed Hummingbird (right), birds of the southwestern states and Mexico, were found north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The dove was the state’s first of its species and the Broad-billed the second ever. A Calliope Hummingbird, a bird from west of the Rockies, visited a garden in Maryland.
Western and southwestern warblers flew far to the north and east. The Midwest’s first Lucy’s Warbler was at Whitefish Point, Michigan (photo, in our rarities gallery), and Maine’s third Virginia’s Warbler was on Monhegan Island. And a Scott’s Oriole of the southwest was found far from home near the shore of Lake Superior in northeastern Minnesota.
Vermilion Flycatcher, a species from Mexico and the southwestern states, was spotted in central Wisconsin, eastern South Carolina, and southern Florida.
Ash-throated Flycatcher, a bird that breeds from Washington State to central Mexico and often wanders east in fall, was found along the Atlantic coast from New Brunswick to North Carolina earlier than in past years and in unusually large numbers.
A related species from Arizona, Texas, and Mexico, Brown-crested Flycatcher, was in Florida, and a Say’s Phoebe, widespread in the west, was a one-day wonder in Wisconsin.
Birders in Minnesota and Florida found kingbirds that were either Tropical or Couch’s, lookalike birds native to South Texas and Mexico.
Unmistakable Scissor-tailed Flycatchers of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas turned up in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Georgia, Florida, New York, and Massachusetts. Other vagrants included Mountain Bluebird in Illinois and Missouri; Townsend’s Solitaire in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and New Jersey; and Sage Thrasher in Illinois (in our rarities gallery) and Florida.
Experts said the drought in the southwest, strong winds, or both may have contributed to the birds’ movements. An article on eBird.org, operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon, suggested that juvenile Ash-throated Flycatchers may have been flying away from areas affected by drought.
“Since Texas and northeast Mexico is a center of Ash-throated Flycatcher breeding range, it may be that fledged birds are somehow fleeing the drought and that a few of these birds are turning up more widely,” the authors wrote. “Their ultimate appearance on the East Coast is likely a result of the strong southwesterly winds that have dominated much of October, but the larger question is why these birds were on the move at all.” (For more about the drought’s effects on birds, see "Drought challenges birds.")
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