Art Lander’s Outdoors: Great Crested Flycatcher found from Bluegrass region west to river counties

The Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) is an insect-eating bird most likely to be encountered in Kentucky from the Bluegrass region, west to the Mississippi River counties.

A member of the Tyrant Flycatcher Family, Tyrannidae, the Great Crested Flycatcher was described in the scientific literature in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus.

In Kentucky, and throughout its range over most of the eastern and mid-western portions of the Lower 48 states, it lives in the canopy of tall trees during the summer, and is rarely is encountered on the ground.

Size and coloration

The Great Crested Flycatcher is about 9 inches tall, the size of an American Robin, with a wingspan of around 13 inches, weighing up to 1.5 ounces, with rounded wings, and a square-tipped tail.

Coloration is olive-brown head and back, clear gray throat and chest, bright yellow belly, with bright reddish brown in tail and wings, visible when the bird is in flight.

Habitat

Open woodlands are its preferred habitat, but they may also inhabit semi-open areas including suburban parks, riparian corridors, cliff lines or in timber on the edge of clearings.

Feeding behavior and diet

Great Crested Flycatchers primarily feed on insects, but they will also consume small fruits and berries that are swallowed whole, with the pits later regurgitated.

Flies and spiders make up a small percentage of their diet as they prefer larger prey, such as butterflies, moths, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, bees and wasps.

They employ a variety of hunting tactics, although the most common method observed is a rather passive sit-and-wait strategy. Perched in high canopies, they search in all directions. Once they have spotted a potential prey, they swoop down.

Courtship and nesting

The Great Crested Flycatchers that breed in Kentucky winter from South Florida and the Caribbean islands, to Mexico, and Columbia in South America.

According to the Kentucky Breeding Bird Atlas, they return to Kentucky from their wintering grounds during the last two weeks of April.

The male defends their nesting territory with loud calls, sometimes by fighting with other males. Courtship may involve the male chasing the female among the trees.

The nest site is usually in hole in a tree, either natural cavity or old woodpecker hole. They also utilize large nest boxes when available.

The females does most of the nest building, while the male keeps watch. If the cavity is deep they may both carry in large amounts of material to bring the nest level up close to the entrance.

The foundation of the nest is typically made of grass, weeds, moss, leaves, strips of bark, rootlets, or feathers. The nest is lined with finer materials that may include shedded snakeskins and artificial materials, including bits of string, cloth or strips of clear plastic.

Egg laying commences by mid-May and pairs produce one brood a year, typically of three to five young.

The eggs are incubated on average for about two weeks by the female. After hatching, the nestlings spend another two weeks in the nest before fledging. During this time, nestlings are fed an insect dominated diet by both parents, more so by the female.

High in the treetops the Great Crested Flycatcher is more easily heard than seen, its calls echoing through the woods.

Songs and calls include loud whistles, chirps and a buzzy “wheep,” also a raucous “whit-whit-whit-whit.”

If spotted, the encounter will remain vivid in your memory because of the bird’s distinctive plumage, size and bright calls.

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