594 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
showing fracture).— Miller, O. T., With the Birds in Maine, 196-201, 1904.— 
Post, K. C., Wilson Bull., XXVIII, 175-193, 1916.— Saunders, A. A., XXVIII, 
323-329, 1911.— Whitman, F. N., Bird-Lore, XXI, 293-295, 1919. 
SILKY FLYCATCHERS: Family Ptilogonatidae 
The Phainopepla, which is the only one of the family of Silky 
Flycatchers in the United States, has a slenderer bill than the Wax- 
wings, with nostrils naked, scaled; hind toe very short, wing of ten 
primaries, and tail long and fan-shaped, of broad feathers, widening 
to their obtuse ends. 
PHAINOPEPLA: Phainopepla nitens (Swainson) 
Description. — Length: 7-7.7 inches, wing 3.6-3.8, tail 3.8-4. 1 . Adult male: 
Glossy greenish blue-black (less glossy on wings and tail) except for white patch on 
inner webs of primaries; iris red. Adult female: Plain olivaceous mouse-gray , the 
longer feathers of crest black, edged with gray; wings and tail dusky, faintly glossed 
with greenish, coverts tipped with gray or white, the primaries with white patch 
much reduced or absent, under tail coverts 
broadly margined with white. Young: 
Resembling the adult female, but browner, 
duller, and with narrower wing margins. 
Young females in adult dress have the 
abdomen suffused with whitish, and young 
males have the body feathers, especially 
below, edged with grayish, wing coverts 
edged with white. 
Range. —Breeds chiefly in Lower 
Sonoran Zone from central California, 
southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, 
southern Utah, and central-western Texas 
south to Vera Cruz, Valley of Mexico, 
and Puebla. Winters locally from central 
California and southern Arizona south at 
least to the southern limit of its breeding 
range. 
State Records. —The southwestern 
part of New Mexico is the home of the 
small numbers of the Phainopepla that 
occur in the State, and here it is mostly 
rare and local. Doctor Henry says that in 
1853 it arrived at Fort Webster on May 25, 
and nested on the Mimbres, but he saw none after July. [It ranges commonly up the 
Rio Grande to Palomas Hot Springs and Elephant Butte. Fresh eggs were found 
at Elephant Butte, May 25, 1916 (Ligon, 1916-1918).! Other records are those 
of one collected July 28, 1892, at Big Spring, Guadalupe Canyon, in extreme south¬ 
western Grant County (Mearas); one seen August 17, 1908, at Silver City (Birdseye); 
one collected October 6, 1908, at Gila, 4,700 feet (Goldman); and one taken October 
20, 1912, 20 miles east of Silver City (Kellogg).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Saucer shaped, saddled on a branch of cottonwood, willow, mesquite, 
or other trees, or in parasitic plants; made of twigs, plant fibers, stems, blossoms, and 
From Handbook of Western Birds (Fuertcs) 
Fig. 104. Phainopeplas 
The glossy backed “silken fly catchers/’ 
eating pink pepper berries 
