Acadian Flycatcher
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| Acadian Flycatcher | ||||||||||||||
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| Empidonax virescens (Vieillot, 1818) |
The Acadian Flycatcher, Empidonax virescens, is a small insect-eating bird of the tyrant flycatcher family.
Adults have olive upperparts, darker on the wings and tail, with whitish underparts; they have a white eye ring, white wing bars and a wide bill. The breast is washed with olive. The upper part of the bill is dark; the lower part is yellowish.
Their breeding habitat is deciduous forests, often near water, across the eastern United States and southwestern Ontario. They make a loose cup nest in a horizontal fork in a tree or shrub.
These birds migrate to Central America and northern South America.
They wait on a perch in the middle of a tree and fly out to catch insects in flight, also sometimes picking insects from foliage while hovering. They may eat some berries and seeds.
This bird's song is peet-sa. The call is a soft peet. They also have a call similar to that of the Northern Flicker.
The numbers of these birds have declined somewhat in the southern parts of their range. Brown-headed Cowbirds lay eggs in the nests of these birds in some areas.