Great Crested Flycatcher

Identificazione

Adult great crested flycatchers usually measure between 17–21 cm (6.7–8.3 in) in length with a wingspan of around 34 cm (13 in). This bird usually weighs between 27–40 g (0.95–1.41 oz). There is no sexual dimorphism. All adults are brownish on the upperparts with yellow underparts; they have a long rusty brown tail and a bushy crest. Their throat and breast are grey.<p>Males will sing a three-part song composed of two short whistles: a wheerreep followed by a higher-pitched whee, and a soft low churr. This song is meant to be heard by a mate at short distances, indicating periods of low disturbance and stress typically intensifying just before dawn. It is appropriately named "dawn song" (or twilight song).<p>In addition to the dawn song, great crested flycatcher also produce various calls, a series of fast ascending huit, huit, huit is given in moments of stress or excitement during interactions of between neighbours. The most characteristic sound is perhaps a single loud whee-eep, called out to communicate between mates or parents and young birds. A faster repetition of this call often signal predators in proximity to nests and young. A rapid succession of harsh-sounds rasps signals alarm or stress often heard during territorial disputes between neighbouring birds

Tassonomia

The great crested flycatcher was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus crinitus. The specific epithet crinitus is Latin and means "long-haired" (from crinis meaning "hair") Linnaeus based his account on the "crested fly-catcher" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Linnaeus specified the type locality as "America" but this was restricted to South Carolina by Outram Bangs in 1898. It is now one of 22 species placed in the genus Myiarchus that was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1844. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

Nome scientifico

Myiarchus crinitus

Autorità

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Ordine

Passeriformi

Famiglia

Tyrannidae

Genere

Myiarchus

Areale e habitat

The great crested flycatcher's habitat selection may vary slightly with different populations, but can be most often found breeding in deciduous forests and at edges of clearings and mixed woodlands. They also show a tendency to favour landscapes with open canopy, such as second growth forests or woodlands that have been subjected to selective cutting, and also appears to avoid coniferous dominant habitats such as the Canadian boreal forest.<p>The summer breeding ground covers all eastern, mid-eastern and parts of central United States, including Northern and Southern parts of Florida, parts of Texas, central Oklahoma, and eastern and central North Dakota. In Canada, it is limited to southern Manitoba, extreme southern portions of the St-Lawrence forest of Ontario, Quebec, northeast Nova Scotia and parts of Prince Edward Island.<p>Its winter range includes most of southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, and extends along the coasts of Central America. In southern peninsular Florida, Great Crested flycatcher can be found year-round. They migrate to Mexico and South America, as well as to Florida and the Caribbean.

Areale riproduttivo

America settentrionale: dal Canada centro-meridionale e sudorientale agli Stati Uniti centro-meridionali e sudorientali

Areale non riproduttivo

s Mexico to Colombia and Venezuela

Migrazione

Migratori completi

Comportamento

Comportamento migratorio: Migratori completi.

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione: stabile.

Tendenza della popolazione

stabile