Gray Flycatcher
The Gray Flycatcher is similar to other Empidonax flycatchers, but is gray above and white below. Its color blends with the blue-gray hues of sagebrush and helps conceal it from predators. Its lower mandible is flesh-colored and its eye ring is not prominent. It also slowly bobs its tail. The Gray Flycatchers song is in two parts, rising in tone: chiwip (or chi-bit) cheep and its call is a soft whit.

The Gray Flycatcher does most of its foraging in the spaces between bushes and often flies to snatch insects from the ground. It catches insects from the size of tiny beetles to butterflies. It nests in a crotch of a thornbush, juniper or sagebrush, 2 to 5 feet above the ground, sometimes in loose colonies.

The Gray Flycatcher breeds from southern Washington and southwestern Wyoming south to eastern California, central Arizona and central New Mexico and winters in southern California and southern Arizona. It prefers sagebrush and pinyon-juniper woodlands.
Gray Flycatcher Range Map

Visit Shaw Creek Bird Supply and see our selection of Bird Houses, Bird Feeders, Hummingbird Feeders & Heated Bird Baths .

Copyright © 2004 Shaw Creek Bird Supply