General

Great Crested Flycatcher: Large, crested flycatcher with olive-green upperparts. Head, throat, and upper breast are gray, belly is yellow, and undertail coverts are lemon-yellow. Bill is heavy and black. Wings are dark with rufous patches. Tail is rufous. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Great Crested Flycatcher: Breeds from south-central and southeastern Canada to the Gulf coast. Spends winters in southern Florida; also in tropics.

Breeding and Nesting

Great Crested Flycatcher: Four to eight white to buff eggs marked with brown, olive, and lavender are laid in a nest filled and lined with grass, weeds, bark strips, rootlets, feathers, fur, snake skin, onion skin, and cellophane. Nest is usually built in a cavity, abandoned hole of another bird, or bird box.

Foraging and Feeding

Great Crested Flycatcher: Eats variety of large insects, including beetles, crickets, katydids, caterpillars, moths, and butterflies; also eats fruits and berries; forages by flying from a perch to snatch insects from foliage, mid-air, or on the ground.

Readily Eats

Meal Worms

Vocalization

Great Crested Flycatcher: Call is a melodic whistle of "wheeep!" or a rolling "prrrrrrrrrreeeet." "Wheeep" is often given in rapid succession in series of three or more.

Similar Species

Great Crested Flycatcher: Ash-throated Flycatcher has smaller bill, white throat, and pale gray breast.