The Great Crested Flycatcher ( Myiarchus crinitus) is a fascinating and elegant songbird known for its distinctive calls and foraging habits. Often heard more than seen, this bird plays a significant role in controlling local insect populations within its habitat. This article delves into the specifics of the Great Crested Flycatcher's diet and foraging behavior, shedding light on how this agile flyer thrives in its environment.
Identification and Habitat
The great crested flycatcher is a medium-sized bird, measuring about 7 or 8 inches tall. It can be identified by the lemon-yellow stomach and the reddish-brown or blue-gray back, wings, and head. Other prominent features include the large crest and the long, narrow beak. The dark gray head is large, rounded, and slightly domed or crested at the top. Secondary feathers are a bright rufous, as are the tail feathers.
Great Crested Flycatchers prefer breeding territories in open broadleaf or mixed woodlands and at the edges of clearings rather than in dense forests. This species is found in habitats with a semi-open canopy or forest edge and avoids the northern coniferous (boreal) forests of Canada. They tend to live near the edge of forests, around open plains. Among woodlands, they favor edge habitats in second-growth forests, wooded hedgerows, isolated woody patches, and selectively cut forests over continuous, closed-canopy forests. They tolerate human presence and will search out cavities in old orchards and in woody urban areas like parks, cemeteries, and golf courses. If there are enough trees, they will claim territories in pastures, along streams and rivers, and in swamps and wetlands. On their winter grounds, they extend their tolerance of wooded habitats to shrubby clearings, clearings with scattered trees, and semiarid forests. The Great Crested Flycatcher can be found in sparse woodlands and groves across the eastern United States and parts of Canada in the breeding season, then Central and South America in the winter. Most birds settle somewhere between Mexico and Colombia. This common bird of eastern North America appears to have benefited from the fragmentation of deciduous forest and subsequent increase in small woodlots and woodland edges. It is a summer resident throughout the southern Canadian provinces and all states east of the Great Plains, generally arriving by early May and departing by late September. This species may be found in southern Central America and northeast South America.
General Behavior
Great Crested Flycatchers are diurnal, with the exception of nocturnal migration. They are active during the day. They use auditory and physical body postures as main forms of communication. The Great Crested Flycatcher is recognized by its distinctive, loud, and somewhat raspy, "wree-eep" calls. These calls are often given between pairs or to young as contact calls. Males defend nesting territory with loud calls, sometimes by fighting with other males. Courtship may involve male chasing female among the trees. Males are known for their aggressive territorial behavior in the breeding season. These birds tend to keep only a single mate per breeding season.
Foraging Techniques
The Great Crested Flycatcher is an agile flyer. It does the majority of its hunting in the air, usually around dawn or dusk, and does not come to the ground very often. They spend very little time on the ground. They do not walk or hop, but rather fly from place to place to capture their food. They avoid direct food competition with other birds by capturing their prey high in the air, plucking them from the surfaces of leaves, branches and bark crevices of the canopy. The great crested flycatcher is primarily an insectivore, with insects and other invertebrates making up for the majority of its diet, but will also consume small portion of small fruits and berries.
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Great crested flycatchers will use a variety of hunting tactics, although the most common method observed is a rather passive sit-and-wait strategy. They often sit on a high perch and wait for prey to pass by so they can swoop down and eat it. They will also sometimes hover near a plant and snatch the prey in its beak. Forages by flying out from a perch to catch insects. May hover momentarily while taking insects from foliage or twigs, or may catch them in mid-air. Sometimes drops down to take food from on or near the ground, but usually feeds rather high. They catch most of insect prey in flight. The flycatcher’s diet largely consists of insects. Some of its favorite foods include crickets, beetles, butterflies, moths, and, of course, flies. It will supplement this with spiders, small lizards, and fruits and berries (especially in its winter migration home).
If they've spotted prey sitting on a leaf top, a twig, tree trunk, or a weed head, they swoop down from their perch, then brake abruptly to hover just long enough to snatch the prey and fly off. Sometimes the braking is minimal, and they crash into foliage with little slowing to snap up the prey before continuing along their flight path. They'll drop down to take prey on the ground, too. Vigilance may reward you with a flash of reddish brown or yellow, a glimpse of the raised crest, and the sound of a snapping bill as this large raucous flycatcher sallies forth to capture an insect or evict an intruder.
Diet Composition
Great Crested Flycatchers eat mainly insects and other invertebrates, as well as small berries and other fruits. Mostly insects. Feeds on a wide variety of insects, including caterpillars, moths, butterflies, katydids, tree crickets, beetles, true bugs, and others. Also eats spiders and sometimes small lizards, and regularly eats fruits and berries. Small fruits may be a major part of diet in winter in the tropics. They eat mainly flying insects, including butterflies, moths, beetles, bees, wasps and flies. They will also eat grasshoppers, crickets and spiders. Dragonflies, moths, and butterflies are offered to chicks whole, wings and all, but if they're rejected, the parents crush the insects and re-offer them.
Nesting Behavior
The flycatcher’s nest is constructed high up in the canopy to avoid competition with other bird species. The Great Crested Flycatcher belongs to one of the largest genera of New World flycatchers; three close relatives occur in the southwestern United States, but others occur in the West Indies and Middle and South America. An obligatory but secondary-cavity nester, the Great Crested Flycatcher is the only cavity-nesting flycatcher of eastern North America. It uses a wide variety of nesting cavities, including naturally occurring hollows in live trees created by branch scars and knotholes, cavities in dead trees excavated by woodpeckers, and a variety of human-made structures. This species chooses to nest in abandoned holes and cavities high up in canopies. The Great Crested Flycatcher sometimes has difficulty finding a suitable nesting site and will easily accept an artificial one. It should be attracted to a simple hanging nest box (or at least one with a predator guard) 12 to 20 feet above the ground. The box should be placed in your yard well in advance of the breeding season.
Nest site is usually in hole in tree, either natural cavity or old woodpecker hole, usually 20-50' above the ground. Sometimes nests in artificial sites such as birdhouses, drainpipes, or hollow fence posts. Great crested flycatchers are cavity nesters. They do not excavate their cavities but take over abandon natural or manmade cavities. Nesting cavities can be 10 to 70 feet from the ground. Both male and female Great crested flycatchers inspect available cavities before determining the perfect one to occupy. Both sexes help build nest; in deep cavities, they may carry in large amounts of material, to bring the nest level up close to the entrance. Nest foundation is made of grass, weeds, strips of bark, rootlets, feathers, or other debris, lined with finer materials. Usually includes a piece of snakeskin in lining (or sometimes a piece of clear plastic instead).
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Nest Placement Great Crested Flycatchers nest in cavities. They favor natural cavities in dead trees, but will use large, abandoned woodpecker holes, nesting boxes, hollow posts, and even buckets, pipes, cans, and boxes of appropriate size. Both sexes inspect potential nesting cavities anywhere from two to 70 feet from the ground. The female does most if not all of the nest-building, while the male keeps her close company. If the cavity is much deeper than 12 inches, she first backfills it with debris before building her nest in the back of the remaining space. She uses a wide variety of materials, from grasses, leaves, twigs, and stems, to hair and fur, snail and sea shells, feathers, bark, moss, cellophane, onion skin, paper, cloth, eggshells, and, quite commonly, shed snakeskin. The inner cup is usually 3 to 3.5 inches across, and 1.5 to 2 inches deep. The female may continue to add fine materials, like feathers, to the nest during egg-laying, incubation, and brooding.
Breeding and Life Cycle
The breeding season of the great crested flycatcher lasts every year between May and July. The male makes a three-part whistling song to attract a mate. The courtship is then sealed with a vaunted aerial ritualized behavior in which the male will swoop down at a potential mate and hope for a positive response. Sometimes he will even pursue the female back to her nesting cavity. will aerially chase potential mates, often into a nesting cavity. is even slightly aggressive in its courtship rituals. will aerially chase potential mates, often into a nesting cavity. time.
The female lays one brood of four to eight eggs at a time. Clutch Size:4-8 eggs. Creamy white to pale buff, marked with brown, olive, lavender. Creamy white to pinkish buff splotched with brown, purple, or lavender. Incubation is by female only, about 13-15 days. Incubation Period:13-15 days. Females sit on the eggs for thirteen to fifteen days. The young are later born helpless, naked, and without sight, entirely dependent on their parents. The young are altricial at hatching and weigh an average 3.0 g. Condition at Hatching:Helpless, sightless chicks are born naked, but soon sport a grayish down. Both parents bring food for nestlings. The female will provide much of the food for the hatchlings, while the male will defend the territory from intruders. Nestling Period:13-15 days. After hatching, nestlings will typically spend another two weeks in the nest before fledging. Age of young at first flight about 12-18 days. The first flight begins around 13 to 15 days of age, but the juveniles remain with the parents for another three weeks. By the arrival of the next breeding season, the juveniles are ready to mate for the first time.
The typical lifespan is thought to be around 10 years or more, but it’s difficult to estimate because few birds return to their original nesting location. It’s estimated that some 6.7 million great crested flycatchers are alive.
Conservation Status
The great crested flycatcher is considered to be a species of least concern by the IUCN Red List, but some individual birds do fall victim to predators, pesticide poisoning, and habitat loss. An adult bird doesn’t usually have much to fear from predators, but eggs and hatchlings are often vulnerable to snakes, squirrels, and other arboreal animals. It will make a fast repeating call when a predator is spotted. Great Crested Flycatcher populations have remained stable across their breeding range from 1966 to 2019, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population is 8.8 million and rates them 8 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of low conservation concern.
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Local increases maybe due to greater fragmentation, which increases favored breeding edge habitat. Local decreases maybe due to competing nesting cavities from other birds including tree swallows, house wren, eastern bluebird and nonnative European starlings. Removing dead snags from the forest may also contribute to local population decreases. Local increases may be due to greater fragmentation of woodlands, which expands the edge habitats they favor. Local decreases may be due to competition for nesting cavities from European Starlings, Tree Swallows, House Wrens, Eastern Bluebirds, or squirrels. "Clean" forestry practices have reduced the number of suitable natural cavities by removing dead snags and the like from forests. These flycatchers are resilient and will nest in a wide variety of sizes and kinds of cavities in a wide variety of habitats.