Olive-sided Flycatcher

Contopus cooperi Order: PASSERIFORMES Family: Flycatchers (Tyrannidae)
Olive-sided Flycatcher Portrait
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Olive-sided Flycatcher Variations:

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General

Olive-sided Flycatcher: Large, heavy-billed flycatcher with dark olive-brown upperparts, streaked olive-brown sides, and white underparts. Head has slight crest and faint white eye-ring. Wings are dark with two pale bars. Dark tail is relatively short, broad, and slightly notched. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has pale yellow underparts.

Range and Habitat

Olive-sided Flycatcher: Breeds in Alaska, east across Canada to northern New England, and south to the mountains of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include boreal spruce and fir forests, usually near openings, burns, ponds, and bogs.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"quick-three-beers", "pip-pip-pip"

Interesting Facts

 Olive-sided Flycatchers undertake the longest migration of any of North America’s flycatchers, arriving on their breeding grounds late in the spring.

 It defends its nest aggressively. A pair was observed to knock a red squirrel off a nest limb and chase it away.

 Breeding Bird Survey trends are negative almost everywhere. It is estimated that the population in sampled areas declined 72% from 1966-2002.

 A group of flycatchers has many collective nouns, including an "outfield", "swatting", "zapper", and "zipper" of flycatchers.



Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Range Map for Olive-sided Flycatcher

Related Birds

Black Phoebe
Western Wood-Pewee
Greater Pewee
Say's Phoebe
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Phoebe
Cuban Pewee
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Family Flycatcher (Tyrannidae)_blue
Species Contopus cooperi
Length7.5 Inches
Wingspan13 Inches

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Olive-sided Flycatcher: Large, heavy-billed flycatcher with dark olive-brown upperparts, streaked olive-brown sides, and white underparts. Head has slight crest and faint white eye-ring. Wings are dark with two pale bars. Dark tail is relatively short, broad, and slightly notched. Black legs, feet.

● Song: "quick-three-beers", "pip-pip-pip"

● Foraging & Feeding: Olive-sided Flycatcher: Diet consists mostly of flying insects, including bees, wasps, flying ants, moths, grasshoppers, and dragonflies; catches food in mid-air.

● Breeding & nesting: Olive-sided Flycatcher: Three to four brown and gray spotted, white to pink eggs are laid in a twig nest lined with lichens, mosses, and grass, and built near the end of a branch among the foliage well up in an evergreen tree. Incubation ranges from 14 to 17 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Olive-sided Flycatcher: Greater Pewee has longer tail, tufted crest, and more uniform gray plumage. Eastern Wood-Pewee is smaller and has white to olive-gray underparts.

Flight Pattern

Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats.
Olive-sided Flycatcher Body Illustration
● Range & Habitat: Olive-sided Flycatcher: Breeds in Alaska, east across Canada to northern New England, and south to the mountains of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Spends winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include boreal spruce and fir forests, usually near openings, burns, ponds, and bogs.
BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester
PopulationFairly common
MigrationMigratory
Weight1.1 Ounces