Family: Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers view all from this family

Description 5 1/4" (13 cm). Dull olive-gray above, whitish below, with 2 whitish wing bars and conspicuous white eye ring. Distinguished by voice and breeding habitat.

Habitat Widely distributed in open country, nesting in shade trees and orchards in villages and city parks, and along rural roadsides and woodland borders.

Nesting 4 creamy-white eggs in a finely woven, cup-shaped nest made of vegetable fibers and lined with grass and feathers, firmly wedged in the fork or crotch of a tree.

Range Breeds from southern Yukon east to central Quebec and Maritime Provinces, and south to Wyoming, Indiana, and New Jersey, and south in mountains to North Carolina. Winters in tropics.

Voice   Dry, insect-like che-bec, snapped out and accented on the second syllable, and uttered incessantly through the hottest days of summer.

Discussion Perhaps the most familiar member of the difficult-to-identify Empidonax group, the Least Flycatcher is a characteristic bird of large shade trees; its presence is most easily detected by its call. An incubating bird is surprisingly tame and will often allow itself to be touched or even lifted off the nest.