General

Cordilleran Flycatcher: Small flycatcher with olive-brown upperparts, yellow throat and belly separated by olive-gray breast, elongated white eye-ring, and pale wing-bars. Bill is long and wide, and lower mandible is bright yellow. Sexes are similar. Fall birds may be duller.

Range and Habitat

Cordilleran Flycatcher: Breeds from extreme southwestern Alberta through Nevada and Rocky Mountains to Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas and into northern Mexico. Winters south of U.S.-Mexico border along the Pacific coast of central Mexico. Preferred habitats include mountain forests and wooded canyons.

Breeding and Nesting

Cordilleran Flycatcher: Three to five white eggs with brown blotches at large end are laid in a nest made of small twigs and rootlets, lined with lichens, leaves, bark, moss, grass, and roots, and built up to 30 feet above the ground, far back in the recess of a ledge or tangle of vegetation; sometimes uses a tree cavity. Incubation ranges from 14 to 15 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Cordilleran Flycatcher: Eats insects, berries, and seeds; forages by catching insects in mid-air.

Vocalization

Cordilleran Flycatcher: Song is a double-noted "pit-peet." Call is a thin, high-pitched "seet."

Similar Species

Cordilleran Flycatcher: Pacific-slope Flycatcher has smaller body and different breeding range and voice.