Elusive great crested flycatcher brings its distinctive bird song to Houston backyards
By Gary Clark,CorrespondentMay 4, 2024
The quick whistled notes of the great crested flycatcher ring out from the forest canopy this spring.
Kathy Adams Clark/KAC Productions
When it comes to bird songs, I'm like a teenager constantly listening to iTunes.
Bird vocalizations in my neighborhood give me a daylong source of joy. And I know the name of every bird by its songs, calls, chippy notes and other sounds. Even when I go to a doctor's office, which I do more frequently as I age, I'm comforted by the sounds of birds from parking lot trees.
That's why I went on high alert when I heard the great crested flycatcher, a migratory songbird that had arrived from its winter home south of the border. Its dawn song — "weeeUP-weeeeER" — rang out from a tree across the street from my house. And, yes, I ran out the door with binoculars in hand, hoping to glimpse the handsome bird.
Hope is the word in this case because while hearing the bird is easy, seeing it can be frustrating. Although it has nearly an 8-inch-long posture when perched, the bird can masterfully conceal itself within the leafy canopy of a tree.
But I never despair, knowing that the bird must eventually perch in full view before launching its rapid aerial attack on flying insects. I'll even hear the snap of its beak on a flying insect like a wasp or even a butterfly, the latter to my vexation. But the bird must eat and feed its chicks.
Watching the bird perched on an outer tree branch before taking flight, I can see its lemon-yellow belly and olive-brown head with fluffy crown feathers resembling a crest. I can see the reddish color on the outer wings and under the tail when the bird takes flight.
The bird arrived in my neighborhood after migrating from wintering homes in northern South America, Central America or southern Mexico. Having seen the great crested flycatcher on wintering grounds in Central America, I'm tipping my cap to the bird, which may have traveled more than 2,000 miles to breed and raise chicks in my neighborhood. Even if it flew roughly 900 miles from southern Mexico, I welcome it to the trees around my house.
The bird breeds throughout the eastern half of Texas and the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada. It’s scientifically classified as Myiarchus crinitus, which roughly means fly marauder with long hair. Did someone think the bird's fluffy crest resembled hair?
Great crested flycatcher facts
- Great crested flycatchers probably migrate along Mexico’s northeastern corridor into Texas, but the number of birds flying across the Gulf of Mexico to Texas remains a mystery.
- Some birds breeding in the eastern U.S. spend winters in South Florida.
- Although the birds may use a variety of trees for nesting, they prefer deciduous trees within local wooded neighborhoods, local parks, and woodlands.
- Males and females have the same appearance.
- A female constructs a bulky nest inside a tree cavity and lines it with soft material that often includes snakeskin, which apparently deters nest predators.
- Great crested flycatchers belong in the Myiarchus genus of migratory birds that include ash-throated flycatchers breeding in the western half of Texas and brown-crested flycatchers breeding in the state’s Rio Grande Valley.
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