Least Flycatcher

Least Flycatcher at nest with begging young.

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A small drab flycatcher of open woods, the Least Flycatcher is one of the smallest and most common flycatchers in North America.

Cool Facts

• Unlike most species of songbird, adult Least Flycatchers migrate to their wintering grounds before molting, while young birds molt before and during autumn migration. Why such a pattern has developed remains unclear, but it may result from strong selection on adults for early arrival and establishment of territories on the wintering grounds.
• One Least Flycatcher nest was found to have used dragonfly wings as nest lining.

Description

• Size: 12-14 cm (5-6 in)
• Wingspan: 20 cm (8 in)
• Weight: 8-13 g (0.28-0.46 ounces)

• Small flycatcher.
• Prominent eyering.
• Two white wingbars.
• Back brownish olive to gray.
• Underparts whitish.

Sex Differences

Sexes alike.

Immature

Immatures slightly browner above, slightly yellower below, and wingbars more buffy.

Similar Species

• Difficult to distinguish from other members of its genus. Least is the grayest of the eastern Empidonax. Call is best character.

Sound

Song a harsh, two-noted "che-bek."

Range

Range Map

© 2004 Cornell Lab of Ornithology

About the map

Summer Range

Breeds from southern Yukon to Newfoundland, southward to northern Wyoming, Nebraska, northern Ohio, and New Jersey; farther south in Appalachians.

Winter Range

Winters in southern Mexico and Central America.

Habitat

Breeds in semi-open woodlands, orchards, and shrubby fields. Winters along wooded ravines, woodland edge, and brushland.

Food

Mostly insects, some fruit in winter.

Behavior

Foraging

Captures insects by hawking and hover-gleaning.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Neat open cup woven of bark strips, grass, caterpillar webs, lichens, hair, feathers, rootlets, mosses, and other bits of vegetation; lined with fine grasses, feathers, hair, down, and plant stems; placed in crotch or fork of small tree.

Egg Description

Yellowish or creamy white, unmarked.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and with only small patches of down.

Conservation Status

Common. Some populations may be slightly declining.

Other Names

Moucherolle tchébec (French)
Mosquerito mínimo, Tontín chebec (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Briskie,  J. V. 1994. Least Flycatcher (Empidonax minimus). In The Birds of North America, No. 99 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists' Union.