The Willow Flycatcher is another small, drab Empidonax flycatcher, and like its relatives it is best identified not by its muted brownish-olive plumage but by its voice — a burry, sneezy "FITZ-bew!" delivered from a shrub-top perch. It has only a faint eye-ring, less obvious than the bold "spectacles" of the Least Flycatcher, and it favors distinctly wetter, brushier habitat: willow thickets, shrubby wet meadows, and overgrown field edges near water.
The Willow Flycatcher and the very similar Alder Flycatcher were once considered a single species, "Traill's Flycatcher," and are still essentially impossible to separate by appearance — their songs are the only reliable clue in the field. Willow Flycatchers arrive late in spring, among the last migrants to return, and breed in shrubby wetlands across much of Michigan, sallying after flying insects from low perches before heading back to the tropics in late summer.
Sallies from low perches in shrubby wetlands to catch flying insects, and gleans insects from foliage, taking flies, wasps, bees, beetles, and other prey. It adds some berries and fruit late in the season, foraging in and around the willow and shrub thickets where it nests.
Only by voice. The Willow gives a burry, sneezy "FITZ-bew," while the Alder gives a buzzy "fee-BEE-o." The two look essentially identical and were once lumped as one species, "Traill's Flycatcher."
Wet, brushy places — willow thickets, shrubby wet meadows, and overgrown edges near water. This preference for damp, shrubby habitat helps separate it from the drier-woodland Least Flycatcher.
Late — the Willow Flycatcher is among the last migrants to return in spring, usually not appearing on territory until late May, and it heads south again by late summer.
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