Look For A medium-sized gray-brown flycatcher with rufous pink sides and a square black tail. Dark eye line stands out on gray head. Upper wings, best seen in flight, are plain gray. Like other phoebes, the Say’s phoebe wags its tail while perched. Listen For A sad-sounding, down-slurred call: pee-yerr or pyeer. Sometimes alters the […]
Look For Among our common flycatchers, the western kingbird, with its pale gray head, white throat, and lemon yellow belly, stands out. In flight, the black tail shows white edges. Listen For Short squeaky call notes. Also a series of explosive, sputtery squeaks like a squeeze toy getting chewed on by several puppies at once:
Look For It’s hard to misidentify a male vermilion flycatcher, with his flaming red crown, throat, and underparts offset by the dark brown mask and upperparts. Adult female is pale gray above and streaky chested with a dark mask and black tail. Some adult females show a pink wash on the belly. Listen For Song
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Black above, white below, with a heavy black bill, the Eastern Kingbird looks a bit mean. As its Latin name suggests, it is a tyrant of tyrants, often attacking much larger birds that invade its territory. The obvious white tip to the black tail is a field mark unique to this flycatcher species. Listen for
