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 extreme southeastern Canada south through the eastern and plains states to the Gulf coast. Resident in southern Florida. Winters from the Yucatan Peninsula and the West Indies south into the tropics of South America. Found in the canopy of open woods.

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.

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 paler underparts, a white throat and pale gray breast, and a smaller bill.