Taiga Flycatcher - St. Paul Island, Alaska

On 21 September a fallout on St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska, produced an ABA Code-4 Taiga Flycatcher (Ficedula albicilla) at the “Crab Pots”.

In 2006 Taiga Flycatcher was split from the smaller Red-breasted Flycatcher by the AOU (Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 11). Taiga Flycatcher breeds across Russia and into the Kamchatka Peninsula, wintering from west central India to Southeast Asia and the upper Malay Peninsula.  Although most reports come from the Western Aleutian Islands in the spring, there are two previous records for St. Paul Island from 5 June 1977 and from 28 August 2009. The only other fall report was one bird on 19 September 2004 from Gambell, St. Lawrence Island (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty, et al.).