Ash-throated flycatcher

Ash-throated flycatcher
In California, United States
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Myiarchus
Species:	M. cinerascens
Binomial name
Myiarchus cinerascens (Lawrence, 1851)

The ash-throated flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens) is a passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It breeds in desert scrub, riparian forest, brushy pastures and open woodland from the western United States to central Mexico. It is a short-distance migrant, retreating from most of the U.S. and northern and central Mexico, spending the winter from southern Mexico to Honduras. This bird is also prone to wander, with single birds often seen outside its normal breeding range as far away as the east coast of North America.

The nest is built in a tree cavity or similar natural or man-made hole, and the normal clutch is three or four eggs.

Adult ash-throated flycatchers are 19–20 cm (7.5–7.9 in) long and weigh 24–31 g (0.85–1.09 oz). The upperparts are olive brown, with a darker head and short crest. The breast is gray and the belly is a very pale yellow. The brown tail feathers and wings have rufous outer webs, and there are two dull wing bars. The sexes are similar.

The ash-throated flycatcher is separated from other confusingly similar Myiarchus species by its calls, a burry kabrick and a rough prrt or wheer heard year-round.^[2]

This species is primarily an insectivore that flies from a perch to catch prey from the ground or from foliage in the undergrowth, less often from branches and trunks, hardly ever in midair. Unlike many other tyrant flycatchers, it often moves on to another perch rather than returning to the same one. It also takes some fruit, especially in winter if insects are unavailable. Rarely, it takes small mammals and reptiles, which it kills by banging them against hard objects.^[2]

The flight has an easygoing, slightly bobbing pattern.

References

1. BirdLife International (2012). "Myiarchus cinerascens". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
2. Cardiff, Steven W.; Dittmann, Donna L. (2002). Poole, A., ed. "Ash-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens)". The Birds of North America Online. Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 30 March 2009.

External links

• BirdLife species factsheet for Myiarchus cinerascens
• "Ash-throated flycatcher media". Internet Bird Collection.
• Ash-throated flycatcher photo gallery at VIREO (Drexel University)
• Interactive range map of Myiarchus cinerascens at IUCN Red List maps
• Ash-throated flycatcher Species Account – Cornell Lab of Ornithology
• Audio recordings of Ash-throated flycatcher on Xeno-canto.