Least Flycatcher
The Least Flycatcher is perhaps the most familiar member of the Empidonax group of flycatchers. The Least Flycatcher is a characteristic bird of large shade trees and its presence is most easily detected by its call - a dry, insect-like che-bec, snapped out and accented on the second syllable and uttered incessantly through the hottest days of summer. The Least Flycatcher is dull olive-gray above, whitish below, with two whitish wing bars and a conspicuous white eye ring.

The Least Flycatcher feeds mainly on flying insects, most of which are caught on the wing, but some are gleaned from vegetation and also eats a few fruits and seeds. It nests in an upright crotch or on a horizontal fork of deciduous or coniferous trees, usually saplings or small trees, including birch, red pine, cedar, apple, dogwood, oak, sugar maple, willow and alder. It tends to nest at the edge of a clearing 10 to 20 feet above the ground, but will nest from 2 to 60 feet. An incubating Least Flycatcher is surprisingly tame and will often allow itself to be touched or even lifted off the nest.

The Least Flycatcher breeds from southern Yukon east to central Quebec and Maritime Provinces and south to Wyoming, Indiana and New Jersey and south in the mountains to North Carolina. It winters in the tropics. The Least Flycatcher is widely distributed in open country, nesting in shade trees and orchards in villages and city parks, along rural roadsides and woodland borders.
Least Flycatcher Range Map

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