Willow Flycatcher

Status One record. On 22 June 1980, Ian McLaren found a singing male of this species at Indian Point, Lunenburg County, which was subsequently seen and heard by many others. A tape recording by McLaren was accepted as evidence of its occurrence by W. Earl Godfrey of the National Museum of Canada. On 24 July of that year, Fulton Lavender saw a pair feeding young at the same place.

Remarks The song of this species is an emphatic fitz-bew, quite different from the wee-bee-o of the Alder Flycatcher. Willow Flycatchers are perhaps impossible to distinguish with certainty from Alder Flycatchers on appearance alone. They are the brownest of the genus and may virtually lack an eye ring. Flycatchers with these field marks have been reported on occasion, and it is probable that this species is an occasional vagrant here during migration seasons. They breed across the northern and central United States, into southern British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.