Alder Flycatcher

Alder Flycatcher

About the photographs

About the map

Play sound from this species

Menu

1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

A small, nondescript flycatcher of northern wet thickets, the Alder Flycatcher is difficult to distinguish from the Willow Flycatcher by any feature other than voice.

Description

• Small flycatcher.
• Back dull olive.
• Two whitish wingbars.
• Thin white eyering, may be lacking.

• Size: 13-17 cm (5-7 in)
• Wingspan: 21-24 cm (8-9 in)
• Weight: 12-14 g (0.42-0.49 ounces)

Sex Differences

Sexes alike.

Sound

Song a harsh, ripping "f-bee-oo." Call an emphatic "pip."

Conservation Status

Common. No information on population trends.

Other Names

Moucherolle des aulnes (French)
Mosquero ailero, Mosquerito de charral (Spanish)
Trail's Flycatcher (together with Willow Flycatcher) (English)

Cool Facts

• The Alder Flycatcher is so similar to the Willow Flycatcher that they were thought to be the same species. Song is the only definitive way to tell them apart. However, measurements of crown color with a colorimeter, together with other measures of wing shape, bill and tail, may be able to distinguish birds in the hand that are not calling.
• The Alder Flycatcher's nest is a coarse, loose cup that nearly always has material hanging off it. The nest of the Willow Flycatcher tends to be neater, with no hanging material.

• Willow and Alder flycatchers do not respond to playback of recordings of each other's songs, even where their ranges overlap.

• In an experiment on song learning, Alder Flycatchers were "tutored" with Willow Flycatcher song in the first two months of life. The next spring, the Alder Flycatchers sang normal Alder Flycatcher song.

Sources used to construct this page:

Lowther, P. E. 1999. Alder Flycatcher (Empidonax alnorum). In The Birds of North America, No. 446 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.