Known chiefly as a not common migrant who visits our woods on his journey to and from his northern home. He is a silent traveler and gives no clue to his identity by calling or singing, but his underparts are so much yellower than those of any other of our small Flycatchers that they make a definite field character. Nests in coniferous forests on the ground, laying 4 white, lightly spotted eggs in June.
ACADIAN FLYCATCHER
Empidonax virescens. [Case 8], Fig. 60
Throat white, upperparts bright, light olive-green, without tinge of brown as in the Alder Flycatcher.
Range. Eastern North America; rather southern, nesting from Florida north to Connecticut and Michigan; winters in the tropics.
Washington, common S.R., May 1-Sept. 15. Ossining, common S.R., May 10-Aug. 27. N. Ohio, common S.R., May 4-Sept. 15. Glen Ellyn, not common S.R., May 6-Aug. 27, and probably later.
On the low-sweeping limb of a beech over a stream is an ideal site for the frail nest of the Acadian. The bird is never found far from it and its low-ranging habits permit us to see its characteristic markings and hear its peculiar sudden, explosive little pee-e-yúk and more commonly uttered spee or peet.
The creamy white, brown-spotted eggs are laid the latter part of May.
ALDER FLYCATCHER
Empidonax trailli alnorum. [Case 8], Fig. 62
Larger than the Least Flycatcher, but resembling it in having the back olive-brown instead of olive-green as in the Acadian and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers. L. 6.