Empidonax traillii
On its nesting grounds, the shy Willow Flycatcher is an inconspicuous bird that prefers to remain out of sight. Only when an avian intruder violates this small bird's territory, does the Willow Flycatcher aggressively reveal itself. When out foraging, this small flycatcher moves constantly from one perch to another in low, dense shrubs. The Willow Flycatcher and the Alder Flycatcher were once categorized as a single species called the Traill's Flycatcher. Thomas Stewart Traill was an Englishman who helped John James Audubon find a British publisher for his book Ornithological Biography. |
I.D.: Sexes similar: olive-brown upperparts; 2 whitish wing bars; no eye ring; white throat; yellowish belly; pale olive breast. Size: L 53/4 in. (15 cm). Range: uncommon migrant and breeder in the Rockies; less common in Waterton and Glacier NPs. Habitat: willow and dwarf-birch thickets from the foothills to the lower subalpine. Nesting: small cup nest is built in a fork in a small shrub; female incubates 3-4 eggs for 13 days. Feeding: flycatches for insects; also gleans vegetation for larval and adult invertebrates. Voice: Male: quick, sneezy fitz-bew (up to 30 times a minute) that drops off at the end. Similar Species: Western Wood-Pewee: gray-olive upperparts; darker lower mandible. Cordilleran, Least, Hammond's and Dusky flycatchers: light-colored eye rings. |
