Light gray
or white underneath. Upper part of bill black; lower mandible
flesh-color. White eye-ring.
Female -- Greener above and more yellow below.
Range -- From Canada to Mexico, Central America, and West Indies.
Most common in south temperate latitudes. Winters in southerly
limit of range.
Migrations -- April. September. Summer resident.
When all our northern landscape takes on the exquisite, soft green, gray, and
yellow tints of early spring, this little flycatcher, in perfect color-harmony
with the woods it darts among, comes out of the south. It might be a leaf that
is being blown about, touched by the sunshine filtering through the trees, and
partly shaded by the young foliage casting its first shadows.
Woodlands, through which small streams meander lazily, inviting swarms of
insects to their boggy shores, make ideal hunting grounds for the Acadian
flycatcher. It chooses a low rather than a high, conspicuous perch, that other
members of its family invariably select; and from such a lookout it may be
seen launching into the air after the passing gnat -- darting downward, then
suddenly mounting upward in its aerial hunt, the vigorous clicks of the beak
as it closes over its tiny victims testifying to the bird's unerring aim and
its hearty appetite.
Pages:
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261