Olive-sided Flycatcher

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Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Contopus
Species:	C. cooperi

Binomial name

Contopus cooperi
(Swainson, 1832)

The Olive-sided Flycatcher, Contopus cooperi, is a passerine bird. It is a medium-sized tyrant flycatcher.

Adults are dark olive on the face, upperparts and flanks. They have light underparts, a large dark bill and a short tail.

Their breeding habitat is coniferous woods across Canada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States, and other types of wooded area in California. Olive-sided Flycatchers are abundant in early postfire landscapes that have burned at high severity. The female usually lays 3 eggs in a shallow open cup nest on a horizontal tree branch. The male defends a large area around the nesting territory. Both parents feed the young birds.

These birds migrate to Central America and the Andes region of South America.

They wait on a perch at the top of a tree and fly out to catch insects in flight.

The song is a whistled quick-three beers. The call is a rapid pip pip pip.

The numbers of this bird are declining, probably due to loss of habitat in its winter range.

Note on taxonomy. Contopus borealis is a junior synonym of Contopus cooperi, according to the 1997 AOU checklist, quoted by BISON. The name of this species is listed as Contopus borealis in many older guides.

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Contopus cooperi

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Contopus cooperi. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened