Sayornis nigricans semiatra
Status: Accidental in spring.
Taxonomy: There are six subspecies, two of which occur in South America and may be a separate species, White-winged Phoebe, and four in central America and Mexico, only one of which occurs north of Mexico, semiatra (Gill et al 2022, but note spelling).
The Nebraska record is presumed semiatra.
Note that the describer of this subspecies (Vigors 1839), used the spelling “sumiatra” (AOU 1957) but oddly Wolf (2020) uses both this spelling and “semiater” and Gill et al (2022) use “semiater“.
There are several records with photos of hybrids between this species and Eastern Phoebe along the Front Range in northeastern Colorado (eBird.org, accessed Nov 2023); observers should attempt photos of Eastern Phoebes and, of course, any putative Black Phoebe in western Nebraska.
Record:
26 Apr 2020 Scotts Bluff Co (Leukering, eBird.org; Brogie 2021)
This Black Phoebe was found at Morrill Sandpits, Scotts Bluff Co 26 Apr 2020 by Tony Leukering (https://ebird.org/checklist/S67853480) and seen that afternoon by Kathy DeLara (https://ebird.org/checklist/S67863132). Both observers filed photographs of the bird. It was not re-found subsequently. The record was accepted by NOURC (Brogie 2021).
Comments: This species occurs in the southwestern United States, extending north in the Rocky Mountains to south-central and southwest Colorado. There are, however, numerous records on the Front Range of Colorado, north to the Fort Collins area. Apart from a remarkable record of one in New Jersey 4-18 Jan 2019, there are only six records north of the Arkansas River Valley and east of the Colorado Front Range: southeastern Wyoming 5 Apr 2018, on the eastern Colorado plains 20 May 2010, 12 Jun 1998, and 2-21 Sep 2018, in western Kansas 5-11 Apr 2020, and western Nebraska Apr 2020 (eBird.org, accessed Nov 2023). Thus, the Nebraska record is the sixth in this group, four of which occurred in the last 3 years (2018-2020).
Images
Abbreviation
NOURC: Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee
Literature Cited
AOU (American Ornithologists’ Union). 1957. Check-list of North American Birds. Fifth Edition. American Ornithologists’ Union, Port City Press, Maryland.
Brogie, M.A. 2021. 2020 (32nd) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 89: 139-145.
Gill, F., D. Donsker, and P. Rasmussen (Eds). 2022. IOC World Bird List (v 12.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.12.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
Vigors, N.A. 1839. in The Zoology of Captain Beechey’s Voyage. editor F.W. Beechey. London, H.G. Bohn.
Wolf, B. O. (2020). Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blkpho.01.
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2023. Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Birds of Nebraska – Online
Updated 16 Nov 2023