This is an old record which I’ll post just for historical purposes. On 16 February 1987, Skip and Nancy Newfield and I found a Hammond’s Flycatcher along Alum Creek in Bastrop State Park, Bastrop Co., Texas. I was able to take more than 60 slides of this bird (this was way before digital photography), five of which I scanned for this iNat record. We were able to use a playback recording to get the bird to call its “pik, pik” call a number of times. As may be seen in the images, the bird had a relatively long and narrow, straight-sided bill when viewed from below. Bottom mandible dark in the center. Long primary extensions and a darker breast than Least. In the weeks to follow, images and other documentation of this bird were reviewed by a host of experts including Kenn Kaufman, Jon Dunn and numerous others. I have a 2 inch thick file on this bird. This record represented the 1st record of the species for the eastern half of Texas and the first winter record of the species in the state. The bird was seen by numerous observers before it was last seen on 28 February 1987.
This record was published in American Birds, Vol. 41, Number 2, page 302 in 1988 and in Kenn Kaufman’s “Advanced Birding” (1990, Peterson Field Guide series) on page 189 as an example of how to document an out-of-range Empidonax flycatcher. The record is also cited in the Texas Ornithological Society’s Handbook of Texas Birds by Lockwood and Freeman, 2004, on page 121. Since this occurrence I am aware of a few additional winter records of Hammond’s Flycatcher in Texas.