Gray Flycatchers? Or??

I'll be posting two images, one of the adult bird and one of the two chicks the adult was feeding. The images were taken in the Uintah Mountains of NE Utah at about 9500 feet elevation at our camp site.

My first impression is Gray Flycatcher, but the Hammond's and Dusky are also possibilities. Ron Dudley and I both photographed the birds, neither of our images show the well defined black lower mandible tip that is usual for the Gray Flycatcher. We did not notice the distinctive tail dipping action of the Gray Flycatcher because the adult bird(s) were busy feeding the chicks.

Any help with the ID would be greatly appreciated. Sorry about the image quality, the chicks were shot at 1/60, the adult at 1/160, the lighting situation was challenging.

This is the image of the chicks.

A tough one. Since they were nesting here, habitat may be your best clue. Looks like they are in coniferous forest of some type at fairly high altitude, so that may rule out gray flycatcher, which usually nest in sagebrush/pinyon/juniper habitat. Hammond's nests in mature spruce or fir forests, dusky usually in shrubby habitat or open pine forest. I'm guessing you did not hear any vocalizations. I hope someone with more experience with western flycatchers weighs in on this.

Was just looking through a bird book today and noticed the flycatcher. This looks an awful lot like it, but I'm far from an expert on ID'ing this species of bird - but you're probably close (nice shots btw!)

Doug,

There were pines, aspens, some junipers and willows very close to the locations were we found these flycatchers. There were also some sage brush plants not too far from camp. We'd camped along the Bear River, and there was a still water area about 25 feet from the tree we first found the birds in and that was thick with willows.

One chick found and ate a pine beetle (we need more flycatchers to get rid of the dreaded pine beetle) on it's own.

The chicks were calling for food, but I did not hear the adult(s) call.

Luke, thanks for weighing in on this. I know the flycatcher family can be very challenging to come up with a positive ID without hearing their calls.

Emps are always tough from photos. Or tough period. I'd think a Hammond's; it has the white "teardrop" behind the eye, which is unique to Hammond's, and a broken eye ring. The wings bars are right. On the other hand, I'd expect a Hammond''s to be getting a yellowish tone on its belly by this time of year, and I don't see it in this shot. I think we can eliminate Dusky because of the broken eye ring, the narrower wing bars and the white spot behind the bill. Emp kids all seem to look exactly the same to me, so the second shot doesn't help much. On balance, Hammond's, but it's tough...

I work with some bird banders on occasion and to tell these (Hammonds, Dusky, Gray) flycatchers apart they rely on the comparison of feather lengths for actual identification. It may be impossible to get a positive identification from photos alone. I would go with Jim's ID.

Anyway whatever they are the second pic is really cool.

OMG Lia can't help with the ID but that second image is tooo precious. I LOVE it.

That shot of the two chicks is just amazing! Post it in the regular avian forum.

Lia, these are Gray Flycatchers . The juvies are beautiful.