It is unfortunate for other members of this group that they are colored so alike that ocular identification is difficult and enthusiastic collectors shoot them to prove they were in a certain locality at a certain time.
"Ha! is that a Graycheek or Bicknell? Shoot it quick!"
— The gun explodes — the soft brown feathers are crimson stained — but the highly important question is settled until another systematic "bug" decides it is the other bird!
Many a crime is perpetrated under the thin excuse of science. of science. The reddish tail of HERMITS renders field identification easy even to the beginner and it would be a thoro-going villain indeed whose shot blasted one of these Wood Fairies into a mess of gory feathers. That goes as it lays! I'm going to lie on the further side of the Styx with a special shotgun shooting red hot pellets and sieve every single Thrush murderer.
Western North America. Breeds mainly in Hudsonian zone from south central Alaska south to Kadiak island and Cross Sound. In migration east to eastern Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico. Winters to Lower California and Mexico.