Speaking of Nature: Ghosts in the treetops: Getting to know the great crested flycatcher
Anyone who has spent any time birding will understand that there are certain birds that are more difficult to find than others. Anyone who has spent a lifetime birding will understand that there are certain species that are diabolically difficult to find. Anyone who has spent any time trying to photograph birds will understand that there are some species that are diabolically difficult to find, but even more difficult to spot in the viewfinder of a camera. Today I introduce you to just such a bird, the great crested flycatcher (Myiarchuscrinitus).
To be a little more transparent, I think I need to clarify one aspect of this particular bird. It is not (in any way) difficult to locate this species. The great crested flycatcher has a particularly loud collection of vocalizations that are so distinctive that they are virtually impossible to confuse with any other local bird. If any species could be described as “permanently perturbed,” this would be the one. It is just a matter of human interpretation, of course, but great crested flycatchers always sound a little surprised and a little annoyed at the same time.
The problem is the fact that they tend to stay in the treetops, which can put them 70 to 100 feet off the ground in a relatively mature forest. It is from this sort of position that a great crested flycatcher will engage in a hunting strategy called, “hawking.” This is a technique in which a bird will sit on an exposed perch and wait for something edible to fly by. Once the prey item is spotted, the bird “sallies” forth and snatches it out of the air. This is different from the sort of aerial hunting performed by swallows, because swallows rarely land for much of anything. Flycatchers land after every hawking attempt and reset for the next flying insect to come by.
Further complicating the location and photography of the great crested flycatcher is the species’ choice of nesting location. These guys, like many other species, look for old woodpecker nest cavities that they can make their own. Woodpeckers make new nest cavities every year, which leaves all sorts of valuable housing on the market in future summers.
Great crested flycatchers will probably look for the nests of northern flickers, red-bellied woodpeckers and even hairy woodpeckers that are located 30 to 50 feet off the ground. These sorts of cavities are rare and wonderful, so the flycatchers have to comb the forests in search of them. Once a cavity is claimed, the flycatchers will fill it with dry vegetation, fur, feathers and even snake skins. This is a decorative eccentricity that I’ve never heard of in other species, and I am amazed that some enterprising human climbed a tree to see what a nest looked like. Scientists quietly do amazing work in a daily basis.
Into the new nest, the female will lay and average of five creamy white eggs that are decorated with splotches of brown, olive and even lavender. As is the case with almost every passerine neotropical migrant that visits us in the summer, the incubation period for the eggs is about two weeks. These are very quiet days in the forest because the female doesn’t want to attract any attention to herself while she alone incubates.
After the eggs hatch, there is a further period of two weeks when the activity level in the forest starts to pick up. The male, who has been defending the pair’s territory all along, will now be allowed to participate in the raising of the chicks by delivering food. The pair of adults will stay in contact with one another with their ridiculously wonderful vocalizations and the chicks will eventually start lending their voices to the flycatcher cacophony.
But on that special day when the chicks decide that it’s time to leave the nest, there will be an explosion of insanity in the forest. Hungry youngsters will fan out across the forest, constantly screaming for food. The parents, bedraggled and on the thin edge of their sanity, try to keep track of all of their offspring while also hunting for food. The pressure must be amazing and the only human analog I can imagine is a child’s birthday party at a pizza restaurant, while other children are also having separate parties at the same time. An involuntary shudder just ran down my spine.
One of the nice things about modern technology is the existence of a library of bird songs. I have posted links to some of my favorite ornithology sites on my website. All you have to do is type in the name of any species and you will be brought to an online field guide filled with all sorts of wonderful content; including songs, calls and other vocalizations made by different species. Head over to speakingofnature.com and visit the “Reader’s Corner” page for the links. Study the sounds for a while, and then head outside and see if you can locate one of these beautiful ghosts up in the treetops.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 28 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more in formation visit his website at www.speakingofnature.com, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.
Daily Hampshire Gazette
