Walking along the creek trail the other evening I found an Ash-throated Flycatcher bebopping through the oak trees. This hip little bird has a slightly bushy head and occasionally whistled sprightly little notes as it merrily foraged in and out of the branches. As it swooped between perches, I caught glimpses of the cinnamon color on the underside of its tail. When it landed, its two faint, whitish wing bars and pale, yellow belly became more visible.
It lives in semiarid country with dry scrub and open woodlands of oak, pinyon pine, juniper, mesquite, etc. There is only the occasional sighting of this bird here at Mount Pisgah. According to the range maps, this part of the Willamette Valley appears to be the upper part of its range west of the Oregon Cascades. A testimony to their suitability for dry habitats is that they don’t need to drink water. They get it all from the food they eat.
Its diet consists mostly of insects and spiders that it catches in midair or gleans from foliage. It will supplement its diet with small fruits such as mistletoe berries found in the oak trees throughout the arboretum.
The bird activity has slowed down at the arboretum as we get into the middle of summer and the nesting season wraps up. It is best to get out early in the morning before it gets hot or go out in the evening as the day cools down. Good luck and happy birding.
Resources
Ash-Throated Flycatcher Life History, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ash-throated_Flycatcher/lifehistory. Accessed 19 July 2024.
Peterson, Roger Tory, et al. Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America. 4th ed, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.