Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 62

frequency, emphasis, tone quality, and
more.
"Like snowflakes, no two ever quite
alike," he wrote.
Most of the nine breeding flycatchers
in Pennsylvania - including the eastern
phoebe, eastern wood pewee, Acadian
and least flycatchers - are variations on
gray and white, and some are most easily identified by their distinctive calls.
Great crested flycatchers are noisier than the others, and showier, with
lemon-yellow bellies and long, reddishbrown tails that glow in the sunlight.
When excited, their crown feathers
stand up to form their namesake crests.
Unlike other tyrant flycatchers, socalled because they pursue and capture
prey in flight, great crested flycatchers
also glean insects from vegetation.
The great crested flycatcher is the
only cavity-nesting flycatcher in eastern
North America. They nest in abandoned
woodpecker holes and natural openings
in trees, as well as in hollow posts and
nesting boxes. Nests also have been
documented inside a cannon at Gettysburg National Park, in an old wooden
pump, stove pipe, open gutter pipe, and
in old boxes and tin cans.
A recent study of great crested
flycatcher nests in Florida found the
higher off the ground the nests are, the
more likely they are to fledge young.
That study also reported that those
flycatchers preferred to nest in abandoned woodpecker nests, particularly
those of red-bellied woodpeckers.
Of the 44 nests surveyed, 20 were
in old red-bellied woodpecker holes.
Great crested flycatchers are summer residents throughout eastern North
America east of the Great Plains, from
62

southern Canada to the Gulf states.
They like to nest in mixed deciduous
forests, but will make do in orchards,
gardens or golf courses.
Here on our mountain, the males
return from their wintering grounds
in late April or early May, a week or
more ahead of the females. Most of
them return to the same area year after
year, and occasionally they have the
same mates.
Males establish their territories by
clashing with their competitors.
Once the females arrive, the males
spend their time chasing and breeding
with them.
They also follow their mates closely
during nest-building and egg-laying to
make sure they're not cheated on.
Nests in Pennsylvania are built in
May and early June.
After pairs choose their nesting cavity, the female fills it with a wide variety
of materials including leaves, seed pods
grass, animal hair, feathers and bits of
bark, cloth and paper.
They're the pack rats of the avian
world.
Almost every great crested flycatcher nest has a shed snakeskin, often
left hanging outside the cavity. Items
of similar texture - cellophane, plastic
wrappers, onion skins or thin paper -
might be used instead.
Experts debate why they do this.
Since not all nests have snakeskin,
many researchers believe the birds
don't recognize what they have, but
like the texture.
Others believe snakeskins are used
to deter nest predators. But they surely
wouldn't work on snakes, and black
rat snakes are major predators on great
crested flycatcher eggs and nestlings.
Researchers in Arkansas recently
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017

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