A couple more Flycatchers
Just a short blog post here to report on a couple more sightings of our flycatchers. In an earlier posting this week, 4 spring flycatchers in the group known as “empidonax” flycatchers or “empies” were described. Over the weekend, I came across two more representatives of the “Tyrant flycatcher” group and just today found out about the location of another that I’ll be checking out in the upcoming week. First on our short list today, however, is the Great crested flycatcher.
Great crested flycatcher - Iona Island - 5/29/26
No problem identifying this flycatcher or telling it apart of the “empies” group. This bird is aptly named as it sports a large crest atop in head. Its gray throat and lemony breast are also tell-tale features of this bird. It’s call is quite unique as well and let’s you know that this fellow is in the neighborhood long before you ever see it. The Audubon Field Guide interprets the call as a “Raucous Whit-whit-whit” and its song as a “loud, whistled, slightly buzzy sheep”. Listen below and you’ll hear what the field guide is describing quite clearly.
And the second flycatcher to add to our week’s findings is the Eastern Wood Pewee. While somewhat similar in appearance to our Emidonax group, the pewee is very plain with very faint wing-bars and no eye-ring. The Audubon Guide also points out that this bird has much longer wing-tips that most of our “empies”. Also making this bird easy to identify when heard is the fact that it calls our its own name - “pee-ah-wheee”, sometimes sounding like it is asking a question and then answering it. See if you can denote these enunciations on the recording below. (Again…credit to web site Xeno-Canto for the downloaded sound files)
Eastern wood pewee - Iona Island - 5/30/26
We’ll continue to hunt down more flycatchers, warblers, sparrows, and more as we continue our journey into June and the Summer of 2026.
