Dusky Flycatcher

Empidonax oberholseriOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Flycatchers (Tyrannidae)

Breeding Location:

Bushes, shrubs, and thickets, Mountains

Breeding Type:

Monogamous

Breeding Population:

Increasing

Egg Color:

White

Number of Eggs:

3 - 4

Incubation Days:

12 - 16

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Grasses, weeds, and bark, lined with plant down, soft grasses, and feathers.

Migration:

Migratory

Overview

Dusky Flycatcher: Small flycatcher with olive-gray upperparts and white or yellow tinged underparts. The upper breast has a pale olive wash. Eye has faint eye-ring. Bill is black except for orange base of lower mandible. The legs and feet are black. Weak fluttering flight with shallow wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Dusky Flycatcher: Breeds from British Columbia and western South Dakota south to southern California, central Arizona, and northern New Mexico. Spends winters south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and rarely in southern California. Preferred habitats include woodlands containing tall trees and tall undergrowth, mountain chaparral, and open, brushy coniferous forests.

Breeding and Nesting

Dusky Flycatcher: Three to four white eggs are laid in a neat, twiggy cup set low in the crotch of a shrub or small tree. Incubation ranges from 12 to 16 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Dusky Flycatcher: Eats flying insects; forages low over shrubby vegetation.

Readily Eats

Meal Worms

Vocalization

Dusky Flycatcher: Song is a variety of melancholy notes.

Similar Species

Dusky Flycatcher: Hammond’s Flycatcher is smaller and darker below. Gray Flycatcher is grayer above and rangier.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Dusky Flycatcher

● Song: "dee-hick", "sill-it, "grrreeep", "pweet", "whit"

● Foraging & Feeding: Dusky Flycatcher: Eats flying insects; forages low over shrubby vegetation.

● Breeding & nesting: Dusky Flycatcher: Three to four white eggs are laid in a neat, twiggy cup set low in the crotch of a shrub or small tree. Incubation ranges from 12 to 16 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Dusky Flycatcher: Hammond’s Flycatcher is smaller and darker below. Gray Flycatcher is grayer above and rangier.

Flight Pattern

Weak fluttering flight with shallow wing beats.

● Range & Habitat: Dusky Flycatcher: Breeds from British Columbia and western South Dakota south to southern California, central Arizona, and northern New Mexico. Spends winters south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and rarely in southern California. Preferred habitats include woodlands containing tall trees and tall undergrowth, mountain chaparral, and open, brushy coniferous forests.

^BreedingMonogamous

^PopulationIncreasing

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.4 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America