The Howland Say's Phoebe Page

Page by Royce

The Say's Phoebe (Sayornis saya) is an active flycatching bird that is not commonly found in Alberta, although they do migrate along the Rocky Mountains to the west of Calgary in the spring and fall. They also can be found more commonly in the south-east of the province. This is a largish flycatcher with an interesting cinnamon coloring to its under feathers. Like most flycatching birds it takes insects from the air with dazzling aerobatics. It also often wags and fans its tail while perching.

Resources where you can find out more:

• Say's Phoebe profile at weaselhead.org

This is a bird I encountered while tracking a Western Kingbird in an open, grassy field in the Inverness tech center area of Englewood, Colorado, on August 10, 2002. The Phoebe was a lot more skittish than the Kingbird, unfortunately, and so I was not able to approach very closely for a good photo. (I also had a tough time getting the camera to focus against the backgrounds I was dealing with, so I resorted to a bit of digital zoom to help get a lock, which impacted picture quality.) However I had a lot of fun watching this bird with its aerial displays as it grabbed flying insects, working its way across a fence line. Photo info: 320 x 277 true color Exposure time: 10/6393 F-stop: 7.4 ISO speed: 400 Focal length: 142.4000 (71.2mm with 2X digital zoom, regretfully, plus 1.5X teleconverter) Exposure bias: 0.0000 Metering mode: Spot Exposure program: Normal Compression: 6 Camera make: NIKON Camera model: E5700

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Unless stated otherwise, all photos and other content on these pages is copyright © 2002 - 2003 by Royce Howland.

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