Cordilleran Flycatcher

Empidonax occidentalisOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Flycatchers (Tyrannidae)

General

Cordilleran Flycatcher: Small flycatcher with olive-brown upperparts, yellow throat and belly separated by olive-gray breast, elongated white eye-ring, and pale wing-bars. Bill is long and wide, and lower mandible is bright yellow. Sexes are similar. Fall birds may be duller.

Range and Habitat

Cordilleran Flycatcher: Breeds from Alberta south through Nevada and Rocky Mountains to southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and western Texas. Winters south of U.S.-Mexico border. Preferred habitats include mountain forests and wooded canyons.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"pit-peet", "seet"

Interesting Facts

The Cordilleran and Pacific-slope flycatchers are very similar, and were formerly considered a single species known as the Western Flycatcher.

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.

Cordilleran Flycatcher

Cordilleran Flycatcher: Small flycatcher with olive-brown upperparts, yellow throat and belly separated by olive-gray breast, elongated white eye-ring, and pale wing-bars. Black bill is long and wide, and lower mandible is bright yellow. Weak fluttering flight with shallow wing beats.

● Song: "pit-peet", "seet"

● Foraging & Feeding: Cordilleran Flycatcher: Eats insects, berries, and seeds; forages by catching insects in mid-air.

● Breeding & nesting: Cordilleran Flycatcher: Three to five white eggs with brown blotches at large end are laid in a nest made of small twigs and rootlets, lined with lichens, leaves, bark, moss, grass, and roots, and built up to 30 feet above the ground, far back in the recess of a ledge or tangle of vegetation; sometimes uses a tree cavity. Incubation ranges from 14 to 15 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Cordilleran Flycatcher: Pacific-slope Flycatcher has smaller body and different breeding range and voice.

Flight Pattern

Weak fluttering flight with shallow wing beats. Hawks insects by flying forth to take them in air and returning to perch.

Cordilleran Flycatcher Spring Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Cordilleran Flycatcher: Breeds from Alberta south through Nevada and Rocky Mountains to southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and western Texas. Winters south of U.S.-Mexico border. Preferred habitats include mountain forests and wooded canyons.

^BreedingMonogamous

^PopulationWidespread

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.4 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America