Cordilleran Flycatcher Identification

The Four Keys to ID

• Size & Shape

  A slim, small songbird with a large, often peaked head, a straight, flat, pointed bill, and a moderately long tail.

  Relative Size

  Slightly larger than a Mountain Chickadee, smaller than a Western Kingbird.

  sparrow-sized or smaller

  Measurements

  • Both Sexes
  • • Length: 5.5-6.7 in (14-17 cm)
    • Weight: 0.4-0.5 oz (11-13 g)
    • Wingspan: 8.7 in (22 cm)
• Color Pattern

  In fresh plumage, greenish brown above (usually darker than Pacific-slope), pale below with strong lemon wash and olive-tinged breast (colors usually richer than in Pacific-slope); wings and tail dark with strongly contrasting pale wingbars. Worn birds can look brownish above, dingy pale gray below, with weak wingbars.

• Behavior

  Forages by flycatching from middle heights in trees and understory, usually capturing insects in flight just below the canopy. Nests in shady mountain ravines and canyons, often placing nests on shaded cliffs, stream banks, rotten stumps, or human-made structures rather than in trees.

• Habitat

  Nests in shady but partly open coniferous and mixed forests, usually near streams in ravines and canyons of mountains. Migrants use similar interior woodland settings. Winters in montane pine-oak forests of western Mexico.