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 →
Closest Relatives at San Lorenzo Protected Forest
Acadian Flycatcher
Empidonax virescens
Great Kiskadee
Pitangus sulphuratus
Southern Bentbill
Oncostoma olivaceum
Common Tody-Flycatcher
Todirostrum cinereum
Tropical Kingbird
Tyrannus melancholicus
Streaked Flycatcher
Myiodynastes maculatus
Social Flycatcher
Myiozetetes similis
Brown-capped Tyrannulet
Ornithion brunneicapillus
Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet
Tyrannulus elatus
Rusty-margined Flycatcher
Myiozetetes cayanensis
Forest Elaenia
Myiopagis gaimardii
Guatemalan Paltry Tyrannulet
Zimmerius vilissimus
Global Distribution
Warmer areas are where this animal is recorded most often.