The Acadian Flycatcher is the Empidonax flycatcher of mature southern forests, and like its relatives it is small, greenish-olive, and marked with an eye-ring and wing bars that make it a challenge to identify by sight. Its song is the giveaway: an explosive, sharp, sneezy "PEET-sah" or "peet-suh" snapped out from the shaded interior of the woods. Slightly greener and larger-billed than some of its cousins, it hunts in the cool, dim understory and midstory of tall forest, sallying after flying insects and hovering to glean prey from leaves.
Despite its name — which references Acadia, a historical region of the Northeast — the Acadian Flycatcher is a bird of southern deciduous forests, reaching the northern edge of its range in southern Michigan, where it breeds in mature woodlands, shady ravines, and bottomland forest near water. It builds a distinctive, flimsy, hammock-like nest slung in a horizontal fork, often with trailing bits of material dangling below. Its need for large tracts of mature forest ties it to the state's better-preserved southern woodlands.
Sallies from perches in the forest understory and midstory to catch flying insects, and hovers to glean insects and spiders from foliage. It hunts in the cool, shaded interior of mature woods, taking flies, wasps, moths, caterpillars, and other prey.
By its explosive, sneezy "PEET-sah" song, given from mature forest interior. By sight it is a greenish Empidonax flycatcher with a bold eye-ring, wing bars, and a broad bill, but the song is the surest clue among these look-alikes.
The name references the historical northeastern region of Acadia, but the bird is actually a southern-forest species. It reaches the northern edge of its range in southern Michigan.
In mature deciduous forest, shady wooded ravines, and bottomland woods near water, mainly in the southern part of the state. It needs large tracts of mature forest and is absent from small or open woodlots.
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