Least Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher: Small flycatcher with olive-gray upperparts, gray breast, and pale yellow belly. Eye-ring is white. The bill has pale lower mandible with dark tip. Legs and feet are black. Feeds on insects, spiders, berries and seeds. Weak fluttering direct flight with shallow wing beats.
● Song:
"chee-BECK", "whitt-whitt-whitt"
● Foraging & Feeding:
Least Flycatcher: Feeds on insects, some spiders, and a few berries and seeds; forages from branches and foliage by perching to spot prey, and then flying out to catch it in mid-air.
● Breeding & nesting:
Least Flycatcher: Three to six creamy white eggs are laid in a nest made of grass, bark strips, twigs, lichens, and plant fibers, bound by spider or caterpillar webs, and built in a tree or shrub 2 to 60 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 12 to 17 days and is carried out by both parents.
● Similar species:
Least Flycatcher: Willow, Acadian, and Alder flycatchers are larger with heavier bills, greener upperparts, longer primary extensions, and different voices.
● Range & Habitat:
Least Flycatcher: Breeds from southern Yukon to northern Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, south to southern British Columbia, northeastern Wyoming, eastern Nebraska, southern Missouri, south-central Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and to southern Appalachians; winters from northern Mexico to Nicaragua. Widely distributed in open country; prefers shade trees and orchards in villages and city parks, and along rural roadsides and woodland borders.