Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher

Empidonax flaviventris

Of all the difficult Empidonax birds to identify, this bird might be the exception. Like their cousins, the Least Flycatchers, they breed across Canada’s southern tier. They breed from the Yukon and northern British Columbia to the Maritime Provinces. To a lesser extent, we find them in the northern USA in the Great Lakes region and northern New England. Their choice of habitat for their summer homes are boreal bogs and spruce woods. There they can find and consume insects such as Black Flies that can make life miserable for birders trying to find them.

There are no recognised subspecies of Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher (i.e. they are monotypic).

Their stay on the breeding grounds is one of the shortest of any migratory bird. Usually, they stay for only about 70 days before they head south to Mexico and Central America.

My first meetings with Yellow-Bellied Flycatchers occurred on my second visit to South Padre Island (Texas) during the spring of 2021. I returned to south Texas in 2022 to experience the fall migration, and I enjoyed their company once more.