Hammond's Flycatcher

Hammond's Flycatcher (Empidonax hammondii) is a small, highly migratory insectivorous songbird native to western North America. It is a member of the tyrant flycatcher family (Tyrannidae) and belongs to the notoriously challenging genus Empidonax. True to its genus, Hammond's Flycatcher is easily overlooked due to its drab coloration and tendency to remain high in the forest canopy. Despite its understated appearance, it is a master of aerial acrobatics, sallying out from perches to catch flying insects. It is closely associated with old-growth and mature coniferous woodlands during the breeding season.

Identifying Hammond's Flycatcher requires a careful combination of structural details, plumage features, and behavior, as it strongly resembles several other "empid" flycatchers.

Key Field Marks

• Bill Structure: Extremely small, short, and narrow. The lower mandible is mostly dark, with pale coloration usually restricted to the base.
• Primary Projection: Notably long. The wingtips extend far down the tail when the bird is perched, giving it a "front-heavy" or short-tailed silhouette compared to its relatives.
• Eye-ring: Prominent, bold white eye-ring that is often teardrop-shaped, flaring or pointing slightly toward the back of the head.
• Plumage: Olive-gray or grayish-green upperparts. The throat is light gray, contrasting with a darker gray chest band and a pale yellow wash on the belly. It has two conspicuous white to yellowish wingbars.

Similar Species to Distinguish

• Dusky Flycatcher (E. oberholseri): Dusky has a shorter wing projection (shorter primary projection) and a longer bill with a mostly pale lower mandible. Dusky typically inhabits lower, brushier habitats and exhibits a slower, gentler tail-flick.
• Gray Flycatcher (E. wrightii): Grayer overall, with a noticeably longer bill that has a pinkish-orange base. Gray Flycatchers pump their tails in a gentle, downward motion rather than the fast, upward flick of Hammond's.
• Pacific-slope / Cordilleran Flycatcher: Overall much brighter yellow-olive, with broader bills and distinctive almond-shaped eye-rings that taper points in both directions, plus different vocalizations.

Hammond's Flycatcher is a specialist of interior forests, favoring mature and old-growth settings.

Breeding Habitat

During the breeding season, they are found high in coniferous and mixed-coniferous forests of the western mountains. They show a strong preference for dense stands of Douglas-fir, grand fir, Engelmann spruce, lodgepole pine, and ponderosa pine, often where the canopy is dense but has small natural openings.

Migration and Wintering

During spring and fall migration, they broaden their habitat use, appearing in riparian corridors, oak woodlands, scrublands, and suburban parks across the West. They winter in the highlands of Mexico and northern Central America, mostly in pine-oak woodlands, cloud forests, and moist montane evergreen forests.

Foraging and Diet

Hammond's Flycatchers are aerial insectivores. They forage primarily in the middle and upper levels of the forest canopy. They sit upright on open branches, scanning for flying insects like flies, beetles, wasps, and moths, then dart out to capture their prey in mid-air (hawking) before returning to the same or a nearby perch. They also occasionally glean insects from twigs and foliage.

Vocalization

Because empids are so visually similar, voice is often the safest diagnostic tool:

• Song: A rough, three-part buzzy series: tsip-gree-preek or se-put... chirp... treep. It is drier and more grating than the song of the Dusky Flycatcher.
• Call: A sharp, dry, high-pitched tsip or pic, which is very distinct once learned.

Nesting

Females construct a compact, cup-shaped nest made of grass, bark shreds, moss, lichen, and plant down, securely bound with spider silk. The nest is typically placed far out on a horizontal branch of a mature conifer, often quite high off the ground (ranging from 7 to over 20 meters high). They lay 3 to 4 creamy-white eggs, which are incubated by the female for about 15 days.