Category: Flycatchers

A small, olive-green bird with distinctive facial markings and a stout and round body, the Hammond’s Flycatcher is a mature bird and old-growth coniferous forests of western North America. Males sing a very short, 3-parted song that can help distinguish this species from other similar Empidonax Flycatchers, including the Dusky Flycatcher, which can occur in shrubby habitats adjacent to Hammond’s. Compared to other Empidonax, Hammond’s Flycatchers have a fairly small, dark bill and long wings. In their breeding habitat, Hammond’s Flycatchers often forages and nests rather high in trees.

Among the similar-looking Empidonax Flycatchers, the two most difficult to tell the Cordilleran Flycatcher and the Pacific-slope Flycatcher apart. You can usually recognize a male by their calls, but you can hardly ever identify females can at all except by their ranges in summer. They were a single species until the late 1980s, where both were put under the name of Western Flycatchers.

Of the three similar crested Flycatchers in the west, these birds are the largest. They are a common summer resident in the southwest, mainly in southern Texas and Arizona. The Brown-crested Flycatcher is conspicuous and aggressive in the nesting season. They arrive late in spring, after most other hole-nesting birds, and may have to compete for nest sites. Typically, they feed on large insects like beetles or cicadas, but they also have been seen catching Hummingbirds on occasion.

The Willow Flycatcher is a widespread migratory bird that mostly breed in a variety of wet habitats. These habitats are mostly shrubby. Their range can extend from Maine to British Columbia, and southwards to southern California. They inhabit similar habitats in their overwintering range. Until 1973, this species was considering conspecific to Alder
Flycatchers and both species were called Traill’s Flycatchers.

The Pacific-slope Flycatcher are small and attractive birds native to western North America, the Pacific Region. These insectivorous birds belong to the family Tyrannidae. They are soft greenish brown birds, with bold eye rings that make them look rather cute. Pacific-scope Flycatchers look very similar to other species in the genus, Empidonax.

The Olive-sided Flycatcher is a songbird that you can find whistling throughout the coniferous mountain forests of North America. Their whistles are markedly distinct, and they are rather aggressive when there are intruders in their breeding territories. You can frequently find them in burned forests, with many dead trees hosting their populations as they provide perches and sufficient prey.

An Alder Flycatcher is a fun bird to see while bird watching. Below are some tips to help you identify Alder Flycatchers. We have also put together a list of fun Alder Flycatcher t-shirts, Alder Flycatcher bird patches, birdhouses, bird feeders, binoculars, stickers, and other fun bird-watching items.