Gray Flycatcher

The Gray Flycatcher (Empidonax wrightii) is a small, insectivorous songbird native to the arid interior of western North America. Belonging to the notoriously difficult-to-identify genus Empidonax, this pale flycatcher is highly adapted to dry shrublands and open woodlands. While visually subtle, it distinguishes itself from its close relatives through its pale gray plumage, relatively long bill, and a highly characteristic downward tail-pumping motion.

Identifying Empidonax flycatchers is a classic birding challenge, but the Gray Flycatcher offers several excellent diagnostic clues:

• Tail Movement: This is your best field mark. The Gray Flycatcher pumps its tail slowly in a downward direction, unlike the Dusky or Hammond's Flycatchers, which twitch their tails rapidly upward.
• Plumage: It is the palest and grayest of the western Empidonax species. It shows very little olive or yellow tone, particularly in the spring and summer. It possesses narrow, white-to-pale-gray wingbars and a faint, narrow white eye-ring.
• Bill: The bill is relatively long and narrow. The lower mandible is pale, flesh-colored, or orange-pink for the inner half to two-thirds, ending in a dark tip.

Similar Species:

• Dusky Flycatcher: Very similar but more compact, slightly greener/darker, with a shorter bill and a tail that moves upward.
• Hammond's Flycatcher: Smaller, darker, with a tiny all-dark bill, longer wings, and a faster upward tail flick.

The Gray Flycatcher is a specialist of arid, open landscapes in the western United States and northern Mexico:

• Breeding Range: Found throughout the Great Basin, nesting in sagebrush flats, pinyon-juniper woodlands, and dry ponderosa pine forests with a shrubby understory.
• Migration: A medium-distance migrant, it moves southward in late summer to spend the winter in the desert scrub of northern and western Mexico, southern Arizona, and parts of the Baja Peninsula.
• Preferences: Unlike green-toned Empidonax species that favor moist deciduous or dense coniferous forests, the Gray Flycatcher thrives in dry, sunny, open landscapes where sagebrush is dominant.

Foraging: The Gray Flycatcher catches insects by flycatching (perching and sallying out to snare prey mid-air) or by hovering and gleaning insects off foliage and the ground. It frequently drops to the ground to catch beetles, ants, and caterpillars, doing so much more often than other Empidonax species.

Vocalizations: The song is a dry, abrupt two-note phrase, often written as chuh-wip or chee-wip, with a low, faint second part. The standard call note is a dry, sharp pit or wit.

Nesting: They construct a cup-shaped nest of plant fibers, sagebrush bark, and grass, lined with softer materials like feathers or animal hair. Nests are typically placed relatively low in the fork of a sagebrush bush, juniper, or pine tree.