The Alder Flycatcher is one of the small, drab, nearly identical Empidonax flycatchers, and like the others it is best identified by voice rather than plumage — olive-brown above, whitish below, with a faint eye-ring and two pale wing bars that could belong to several species. Its song is the key: a buzzy, three-parted "fee-BEE-o," slightly rougher and more emphatic than the "FITZ-bew" of the nearly identical Willow Flycatcher, with which it was once combined as "Traill's Flycatcher."
True to its name, the Alder Flycatcher favors alder and willow thickets, shrubby wetlands, and brushy edges, generally in cooler, more northern settings than the Willow Flycatcher, though the two overlap. It arrives late in spring, among the last migrants, and breeds across northern Michigan, sallying from perches in the shrubs to catch flying insects before departing for South America. For most birders, hearing a clear "fee-BEE-o" from a damp alder thicket is the only sure way to put a name to this cryptic bird.
Sallies from perches in shrubby wetlands to catch flying insects and gleans insects and spiders from foliage, taking flies, wasps, beetles, and other prey. It forages in and around the alder and willow thickets where it nests, hunting from low, semi-open perches.
Only reliably by song. The Alder gives a buzzy "fee-BEE-o" and the Willow a sneezy "FITZ-bew." The two look essentially identical and were once treated as one species, "Traill's Flycatcher."
Alder and willow thickets, shrubby wetlands, and brushy edges, usually in cooler, more northern settings. It breeds across northern Michigan in such damp, shrubby cover.
Late in spring, among the last migrants to return, often not until late May or early June. It heads back to South America by late summer.
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