GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER GALLERY
(Myiarchus crinitus)
eBird provides this description of the Great Crested Flycatcher: Fairly large flycatcher; about the same size as a robin but more slender. Favors mature forests, where it nests in cavities. Brightly colored for a flycatcher, with yellow belly and rufous in the wings and tail. Quite vocal, giving loud, rising “queeEEEEP” and various rolling, burry calls. Distinguish from similar Ash-throated Flycatcher by range, bright plumage, and voice. All About Birds adds this description: A large, assertive flycatcher with rich reddish-brown accents and a lemon-yellow belly, the Great Crested Flycatcher is a common bird of Eastern woodlands. Its habit of hunting high in the canopy means it’s not particularly conspicuous—until you learn its very distinctive call, an emphatic rising whistle. These flycatchers swoop after flying insects and may crash into foliage in pursuit of leaf-crawling prey. They are the only Eastern flycatchers that nest in cavities, and this means they sometimes make use of nest boxes.
I saw my first Great Crested Flycatcher at Warbler pond in the Warbler Woods Sanctuary. I took a photo which enabled me to identify this bird using my friend the Merlin App.
On the early evening of July 9, 2020, I was walking outside at my home and I noticed two birds fly to a spot high up on a tree canopy. I went inside and got my camera and came back outside. In short order I saw one the birds again, and was able to get this shot. The Merlin App confirmed it is a Great Crested Flycatcher.
“Cool Facts” About the Great Crested Flycatcher From All About Birds…
- Great Crested Flycatchers weave shed snakeskin into their nest. Where it’s readily available, as in Florida, nearly every nest contains snakeskin. They also seem to look for flimsy, crinkly nest materials—they’ve also used onion skins, cellophane, or plastic wrappers.
- Though they’re flycatchers, these birds also eat a fair amount of fruit. Instead of picking at the flesh of small fruit, Great Crested Flycatchers swallow the fruit whole and regurgitate the pits, sometimes several at a time.
- Where other insect-snatching birds like Eastern Wood-Pewees, Least Flycatchers, Acadian Flycatchers, or Eastern Phoebes share their habitat, Great Crested Flycatchers exploit a niche higher in canopy to avoid direct competition for food. High up, they swoop out farther for prey, using multiple dead-branch perches.
- When the male sings, it’s to be heard, not to see or be seen. He picks a singing perch within the canopy, well away from branch ends. In contrast, hunting perches require an unobstructed view of potential prey and unobstructed flight paths to them, whether the prey are in the air or on leaves or twigs. Both sexes favor hunting from dead branches with a backdrop of foliage for cover.
- Nestlings rarely return to breed near where they were born. But once yearlings have chosen a breeding area, they often return to that same area year after year. Some pairs re-establish their bond from the previous season and may even reuse the same nesting cavity.
- Great Crested Flycatchers live along the edges between habitats; they don’t need big stretches of unbroken forest canopy to thrive. That means that logging and development practices that increase forest fragmentation actually work to their advantage, in sharp contrast to birds that dwell deep in the forest.
- The Great Crested Flycatcher is a bird of the treetops. It spends very little time on the ground, and does not hop or walk. It prefers to fly from place to place on the ground rather than walk.
- The Great Crested Flycatcher makes the same “wee-eep” calls on the wintering grounds that it makes in summer.
- The oldest recorded Great Crested Flycatcher was at least 14 years, 11 months old when it was found in Vermont in 1967. It had been banded in New Jersey in 1953.