The Alder Flycatcher, Empidonax alnorum, is a small insect-eating bird of the tyrant flycatcher family.
Adults have olive-brown upperparts, browner on the wings and tail, with whitish underparts; they have a white eye ring, white wing bars, a small bill and a short tail. The breast is washed with olive-grey. The upper part of the bill is grey; the lower part is orangish. At one time, this bird was considered to be the same species as the very similar Willow Flycatcher.
Their breeding habitat is deciduous thickets, often alders or willows, near water across Canada, Alaska and the northeastern United States. They make a cup nest low in a vertical fork in a shrub.
These birds migrate to South America, usually selecting winter habitat near water.
They wait on a perch near the top of a shrub and fly out to catch insects in flight, also sometimes picking insects from foliage while hovering. They may eat some berries and seeds.
This bird's song is a wheezed wee-bee. The call is a quick preet.
As indicated by its name, the AlderFlycatcher is commonly found in alder and birch thickets near riparian areas and along edges of swamps, bogs and ponds.
AlderFlycatcher is very poorly known species and was first described as a species as late as 1974.
The AlderFlycatcher came to be considered distinct from the Willow when studies revealed that the song patterns and breeding habits of these species differed.
Alderflycatchers are a little bigger than chickadees, the color of green olives, and have a beak surrounded by bristle feathers that help detect the movement of flying insects.
Benson said the alderflycatcher might time its arrival to coincide with the hatching of a large flying insect that would justify a commute across half the planet.
The alderflycatcher skips the process of replacing worn flight feathers in Alaska, a gamble that allows it to spend less than two months here before returning 7,000 miles to South America.
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