Olive-sided Flycatcher
Contopus cooperi

Conservation status | Evidently has been declining in some regions for many years, particularly so in recent decades. Loss of wintering habitat has been suggested as one possible cause. |
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Family | Tyrant Flycatchers |
Habitat | Conifer forests, burns, clearings. Breeds mostly in coniferous forest of the north and the higher mountains, especially around the edges of open areas including bogs, ponds, clearings. Also nests near the coast in California, in tall trees (including eucalyptus) in foothill canyons. |
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Feeding Behavior
Forages by watching from a high, exposed perch, often on a dead branch at very top of tree, flying out to catch passing insects in the air, then returning to its perch to eat them. Always or almost always takes insects in mid-air, not from foliage or ground.
Eggs
3, rarely 2-4. White to pinkish buff, with brown and gray spots concentrated at larger end. Incubation is by female only, 16-17 days, sometimes reported as 14 days. Young: Fed by both parents. Age of young at first flight about 21-23 days.
Young
Fed by both parents. Age of young at first flight about 21-23 days.
Diet
Insects. Apparently feeds almost entirely on flying insects. In summer, a high percentage of these are various kinds of wasps, winged ants, and bees, including many honeybees. Also eats beetles, grasshoppers, true bugs, moths, and others. Winter diet not well known.
Nesting
Male defends nesting territory by singing incessantly in spring. Courtship behavior not well known, probably involves active chasing through the treetops. Nest site is in tree, usually on horizontal branch well out from the trunk. Conifers preferred in most areas, but in other areas will often nest in deciduous trees; height also quite variable, 5-70' above ground. Nest usually well hidden among dense twigs or needles. Nest (probably built by female) a flat open cup of twigs, grass, weeds, lined with finer materials.
Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
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Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
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Migration
Tends to migrate late in spring and early in fall, but migration is spread over a long period. Winters mostly in South America, a few in Central America.

- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
See a fully interactive migration map for this species on the Bird Migration Explorer.
Learn moreSongs and Calls
Song a distinctive and emphatic quick-three-beers; call a loud pip-pip-pip.Learn more about this sound collection.
How Climate Change Will Reshape the Range of the Olive-sided Flycatcher
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Climate threats facing the Olive-sided Flycatcher
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.