Hammond's Flycatcher
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Hammond's flycatcher (''Empidonax hammondii'') is a flycatcher in the family
Tyrannidae The tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) comprise a Family (biology), family of passerine birds which is found virtually throughout North America, North and South America. It is the world's largest family of birds, with more than 400 species, and is ...
. This small insectivorous
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
inhabits the coniferous and mixed forests of western North America. The name of this bird commemorates
William Alexander Hammond William Alexander Hammond (28 August 1828 – 5 January 1900) was an American military physician and neurologist. During the American Civil War he was the eleventh Surgeon General of the United States Army (1862–1864) and the founder of the ...
who was the surgeon general of the US Army. Hammond collected bird specimens for
Spencer Fullerton Baird Spencer Fullerton Baird (; February 3, 1823 – August 19, 1887) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, Herpetology, herpetologist, and museum curator. Baird was the first curator to be named at the Smithsonian Institution. He ...
.


Description

Adults are 12–14 cm long (4.7–5.5 in), span about 22 cm (8.7 in) across the wing and weigh 8–12 g (0.3–04 oz). They have grayish-olive upperparts, darker on the wings and tail, with whitish underparts; they have a conspicuous white eye ring, white wing bars, a small bill and a short tail. The breast is washed with grey and the sides of the belly with yellow. Females usually have a shorter, wider bill than males. Immature birds are similar to adults, but have broader wing bars and are more buff. Many species of ''
Empidonax The genus ''Empidonax'' is a group of small insect, insect-eating passerine birds in the tyrant flycatcher family, the Tyrannidae. The genus name ''Empidonax'' is from Ancient Greek ''empis'', "gnat", and ''anax'', "master". Most of these birds ...
'' flycatchers are very similar in appearance. Hammond's flycatchers are mainly confused with Dusky ('' E. oberholseri'') and Gray ('' E. wrightii'') flycatchers, which are similar in color and size and have an overlapping range. The best way to distinguish Hammond's flycatcher is by its call, breeding habitat and/or range.


Taxonomy

Hammond's flycatchers are part of the genus ''Empidonax'', which includes a dozen of other species. Despite the relatively large range of the species, Hammond's flycatcher does not present a lot of genetic variations. This might be the result of a
bottleneck Bottleneck may refer to: * the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle Science and technology * Bottleneck (engineering), where the performance of an entire system is limited by a single component * Bottleneck (network), in a communication network * ...
event, that could have occurred when the species range was confined to the South of the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
ice. The bird's morphology, including its plumage, is also consistent across its range. However, there is evidence showing that some Hammond's flycatchers on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, have evolved longer, thicker bills in the absence of
Western flycatcher The western flycatcher (''Empidonax difficilis'') is a small insectivorous bird in the family Tyrannidae. It is native to western North America, where it breeds in the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast forests and mountain ranges from California ...
s, which occupy a very similar
niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development and growth *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ec ...
, but usually have a thicker bill than Hammond's flycatcher. Hammond's, the
Dusky Dusky is an English electronic music duo from London consisting of Alfie Granger-Howell and Nick Harriman.
and the
Gray Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...
flycatchers are sister species, with no evidence of interbreeding.


Habitat and distribution

Hammond's flycatcher is a migratory species, breeding in Western North America and wintering in Mexico and Central America.


Habitat

Their preferred breeding habitats are mature
coniferous Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...
and mixed forests. They are typically found in dense fir forests, conifer and aspen forests and dogwood. Their wintering ground habitats are similar to those used as breeding grounds.


Distribution

Hammond's flycatchers can be found in the
Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. As American settlement i ...
, including Montana, Wyoming, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. In
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, their range includes British Columbia, Yukon and Alberta. Certain birds have been found as far north as
Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
. Overall, their breeding range is formed by regions that have been greatly influenced by past
glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...
events. These birds are migratory and winter in
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
and in
Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
.


Behavior


Vocalizations

The song is a multi-versed, hoarse , , , . The call is a sharp . Hammond's flycatchers do not sing during the fall migration or on wintering grounds. They start singing in early May, shortly after their arrival on breeding grounds. The
frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...
of the song is usually higher at the beginning of the mating season and drops as summer progresses; males that do not have a partner sing more often and at a higher frequency than paired males. Like in other species of the genus ''Empidonax'', bill-snapping and mandible-clicking are commonly used in a threatening context.


Diet

Their favorite preys include beetles, flies, bees, butterflies and moths, with a mean length of 5.7 mm and a mean weight of 1.656 mg. True beetles, and net-winged insects can also be part of their diet. They often wait on an open perch in the upper parts of a tree and fly out to catch insects in flight ( hawking), and are also known to pluck insects from foliage while hovering (
gleaning Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops in the field after harvest. During harvest, there is food that is left or missed often because it does not meet store standards for uniformity. Sometimes, fields are left because they were not ec ...
).


Breeding

These birds are believed to be
monogamous Monogamy ( ) is a relationship of two individuals in which they form a mutual and exclusive intimate partnership. Having only one partner at any one time, whether for life or serial monogamy, contrasts with various forms of non-monogamy (e.g. ...
and show no evidence of extra-pair copulation. Male Hammond's flycatchers physically fight at the beginning of the breeding season, locking themselves together in midair and fluttering to the ground. They tend to nest high up in tall trees, on small to medium-sized branches. They prefer areas where they can be covered by leaves, on the northeast or southwest sides of trees, and prefer
old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...
, with a minimum age of 80 to 90 years. They make a cup nest on a fork in a tree. Females usually lay, in early June, three or four creamy white eggs, sometimes marked with small reddish-brown dots. The female incubates the eggs for about 15 days. The hatchlings are
altricial Precocial species in birds and mammals are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. They are normally nidifugous, meaning that they leave the nest shortly after birth or hatching. Altricial ...
; both the male and the female are responsible for feeding the young.


References


External links


Photo gallery
- VIREO
Photo
– schmoker.org
Hammond's flycatcher sounds
- Macaulay Library
Hammond's flycatcher species account
- Cornell lab of Ornithology {{Taxonbar, from=Q1261051 Hammond's flycatcher Native birds of Alaska Native birds of Western Canada Native birds of the Western United States Hammond's flycatcher Hammond's flycatcher Birds of the Sierra Madre Occidental Birds of Mexico Birds of the Sierra Madre Oriental Birds of the Sierra Madre del Sur Birds of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt