Olive-sided flycatcher Contopus cooperi

Identification Tips:

• Length: 6.25 inches
• Large, triangular head
• Dark face with indistinct eye ring
• Fairly large, dark bill
• Dark olive upperparts and sides
• White throat, center of breast, belly and undertail coverts
• White wing bars
• White rump feathers sometimes protrude over top of wings
• Juveniles have somewhat browner upperparts
• Often perches at the very top of a dead snag
• Commonly feeds by flying out to catch insects and returning to same perch

Similar species:

The Olive-sided Flycatcher is similar to pewees but has darker sides, larger bill, and white patches above the wings (not always visible). Empidonax flycatchers are much smaller.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.