Great Crested Flycatcher and Northern Parula
On a clear, sunny, very warm morning, a strong whreeep and a guttural brrrrt announced the return of a Great Crested Fycatcher to the trees around our house. I couldn’t see this one, but on a walk through the neighborhood later in the morning, heard at least three other Great Crested Flycatchers, and found one perched out in full view on a branch of a pecan tree. It stayed in view for several minutes, calling brrrrt repeatedly, and moving around, as if it were a model on a runway, showing off all sides and angles – its handsome, big, gray crested head; the touch of cinnamon in the wings, and glowing lemon-yellow belly. It flared its long cinnamon tail, catching the sunlight in the feathers like stained glass.
In the trees between our yard and a neighbor’s, a Northern Parula sang – another first of the season migrant. It was singing and singing its buzzy song, a rising trill that trips over and down sharply at the end, somewhere high up among the leaves of water oaks and white oaks, and I never did succeed in seeing it – or distinguishing it from the many other birds in the same trees. There were dozens of Cedar Waxwings – maybe a hundred or more – and many Yellow-rumped Warblers, all moving around frequently, the Waxwings mewing and the Yellow-rumped Warblers singing.
I was looking for a very small, roundish bird with a yellow throat and breast, green back, blue-gray head, face and wings with two white wingbars, and a black and coral band across the chest. It stayed well hidden in the leaves, but its song was summery and good to hear.