Willow Flycatcher
Empidonax traillii
Silhouette: Emily Willoughby · PhyloPic
- KingdomAnimalia (Animals)
- PhylumChordata (Chordates)
- ClassAves (Birds)
- OrderPasseriformes (Perching Birds)
- FamilyTyrannidae (Tyrant Flycatchers)
- GenusEmpidonax (Empidonax Flycatchers)
- SpeciesEmpidonax traillii (Willow Flycatcher)
About the Willow Flycatcher
The willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii) is a small insect-eating, migrant bird of the tyrant flycatcher family native to North America. The willow flycatcher was included by the Franco-American ornithologist John James Audubon in his book The Birds of America based on a specimen collected in the "woods along the prairie banks of the Arkansas River". The section of the book containing the willow flycatcher was published in 1828. There are two variants of the plate illustrating the flycatcher. On one the binomial name is given as Muscicapa trailli and on the other as Muscicapa traillii. The latter spelling was used in 1831 by Audubon when describing the species in his Ornithological Biography that was published to accompany the plates and is now the accepted spelling. The specific epithet was chosen by Audubon to honour his friend the Scottish physician and zoologist Thomas Stewart Traill. The willow flycatcher is now one of 14 species placed in the genus Empidonax that was introduced in 1855 by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis.
There are four subspecies recognized, all of which breed in North America (including three subspecies that breed in California). At one... Wikipedia →
Recent sightings of Willow Flycatcher in Cañón del Sumidero National Park
LIVEiNaturalistClosest Relatives at Cañón del Sumidero National Park
Least Flycatcher
Empidonax minimus
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Empidonax flaviventris
Hammond's Flycatcher
Empidonax hammondii
Acadian Flycatcher
Empidonax virescens
Social Flycatcher
Myiozetetes similis
Tropical Kingbird
Tyrannus melancholicus
Boat-billed Flycatcher
Megarynchus pitangua
Great Kiskadee
Pitangus sulphuratus
Dusky-capped Flycatcher
Myiarchus tuberculifer
Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
Myiodynastes luteiventris
Yellow-olive Flycatcher
Tolmomyias sulphurescens
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Myiarchus tyrannulus
Global Distribution
Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.