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FEATURED BIRDS
Acadian Flycatcher

Scientific Name:
Empidonax virescens

Common Name:
Acadian flycatcher

Class, Order, and Family:
Class Aves, Order Passeriformes, Family Tyrannidae, Subfamily Fluvicolinae

Map provided by
NatureServe*
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Description:
The Acadian flycatcher is the largest and greenest of the North American Empidonax flycatchers. It also has the largest bill. The most distinguishing feature is their explosive "peet-sah" call.

While it is known to be an excellent flyer and can even fly backwards. There is no current information on the Acadian flycatcher’s ability to walk or hop. Even while bathing, it has been observed diving into the water rather than standing in it.

Small among the flycatcher group, they are 15 cm in length, have a 23 cm wing span and weigh 11-14 g. This bird has eye ring and wing bar features and black-green colouring.

Habitat: The Acadian Flycatcher is usually found in large, mature, moist deciduous forests and along streams. It looks for a high, dense canopy with an open understory. It can be found in smaller deciduous forests if the small forest is near a larger forest.

Summer Range: The flycatcher breeds in extreme southern Ontario, southern New England and as far south as northern Florida.

Winter Range: The flycatcher winters from eastern Nicaragua and Costa Rica south to Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

Food: The flycatcher eats insects, berries and a few seeds. It forages in the midstory and overstory canopy of the forest it nests in.

Breeding Behaviour: When breeding, males and females emit loud calls while perched, nodding and bowing with half-spread wings, twisting their heads from side to side. Males will feed the female while she incubates their eggs.

Nest Type and Egg Description: This bird makes its nest in trees in the fork of a twig near the end of a lower branch (at a height of 2-9 m), often over water or another clearing.

Conservation Status: Flycatchers are considered area-sensitive and are suffering from a loss of wintering habitat due to forest fragmentation.

In Ontario, it is believed that there are fewer than 40 breeding pairs. Roughly half of the Acadian flycatchers that currently breed in Ontario occur in provincial parks, national parks, and conservation areas or nature reserves. This species is protected under the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act.

Populations in the United States appear stable, but may be declining in the Midwest.

Information on this page compiled by Jessie Blake.

Sources
BirdLife International. http://www.birdlife.org
Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. http://www.cosewic.gc.ca/eng/sct5/index_e.cfm
Cornell Lab of Ornithology. All About Birds. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/.
Ehrlich, Paul R. 1988. The Birder’s Handbook. Simon and Schuster, New York.
Godfrey, Earl W. 1986. Birds of Canada. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.
Hinterland Who’s Who. http://www.hww.ca
Leslie, Scott. 2006. Wetland Birds of North America. Key Porter Books, Toronto. NatureServe. InfoNatura. http://www.natureserve.org/infonatura/

	Eastern Lake St. Clair
	Norfolk Forest Complex

*	InfoNatura: Birds, mammals, and amphibians of Latin America. 2004. Version 4.1 . Arlington, Virginia (USA): NatureServe. Available: http://www.natureserve.org/infonatura. (Accessed: May 8, 2007 ).