Acadian Flycatcher

Empidonax virescensOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Flycatchers (Tyrannidae)

General

Acadian Flycatcher: Small flycatcher with olive-gray upperparts, pale gray throat, distinctive pale yellow eye-ring, white lower breast, yellow belly and undertail coverts. Wings are olive-gray with two buff wing bars. Bill is long and broad-based with yellow-orange lower mandible. Sexes are similar. Juvenile is similar but with olive-brown upperparts.

Range and Habitat

Acadian Flycatcher: Breeds from southern Minnesota east through southern New England, south to the Gulf Coast and central Florida. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include beech, maple, and hemlock forests, usually under the canopy but also in clearings, often in wooded ravines.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"peace", "peet"

Interesting Facts

The Acadian Flycatcher is an excellent flier, it is extremely maneuverable, able to hover and can even fly backward.
They are a common host to the Brown-headed Cowbird, which lays its eggs in other birds' nests. However only 16% of cowbird young in Acadian Flycatcher nests fledge successfully.
The 15 species of this family were once all thought to be the same as the first that were discovered in Acadia, or present day Nova Scotia. Differences in range, voice and habit eventually identified them as separate species. Ironically the Acadian Flycatcher was the name given to the southern most species; it doesn’t visit the northeast coast of America.
A group of flycatchers has many collective nouns, including an "outfield", "swatting", "zapper", and "zipper" of flycatchers.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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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.

Acadian Flycatcher

Acadian Flycatcher: Small flycatcher with olive-gray upperparts, pale gray throat, distinctive pale yellow eye-ring, white lower breast, yellow belly, undertail coverts. Wings are olive-gray with two buff wing bars. Long broad-based bill with yellow-orange lower mandible. Black legs, feet.

● Song: "peace", "peet"

● Foraging & Feeding: Acadian Flycatcher: Eats a wide variety of flying insects. Perches in shade on lower to mid-level branches in thick trees to await food, then dashes out to snatch insect in mid-air.

● Breeding & nesting: Acadian Flycatcher: Two to four brown-spotted, creamy white eggs are laid in a sloppy cup nest made of sticks, grass, dried stems, bits of bark, and cobweb. Nest is lined with grass, hair, and plant down, and built on a horizontal limb well out from the trunk. Incubation ranges from 13 to 15 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Acadian Flycatcher: Least Flycatcher has smaller bill, more brown-olive upperparts, gray white underparts, bright white wing-bars and eye-ring, and different voice.

Flight Pattern

Weak fluttering flight with shallow wing beats.

Acadian Flycatcher Fall Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Acadian Flycatcher: Breeds from southern Minnesota east through southern New England, south to the Gulf Coast and central Florida. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include beech, maple, and hemlock forests, usually under the canopy but also in clearings, often in wooded ravines.

^BreedingMonogamous

^Population

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.5 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America