Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 63

found the presence of snakeskin in nest
boxes deterred mammalian predators,
particularly southern flying squirrels;
Meanwhile, nest boxes without a snakeskin were preyed on by those squirrels.
That seems to have settled the debate
- at least in Arkansas.
Once the nest is built, both parents
defend it and the surrounding area, attacking small mammals and most birds.
One May day, I observed a great
crested flycatcher attack a singing, flying yellow-throated vireo in our yard.
They tumbled earthward before the
flycatcher flew one direction and the
vireo the other.
Great crested flycatchers are feisty
birds. Florida ornithologists have
watched them attack birds from Carolina wrens to European starlings - even
northern flickers - near nests. One even
was seen going after a black rat snake
that had eaten its nestlings, yelling so
loudly a northern mockingbird, blue
jay and northern cardinals came in to
add their cries.
The female great crested flycatcher
incubates her four to eight, heavily
splotched, yellowish or pinkish-white
eggs while her mate continues to guard
her and the nest.
After 13 to 15 days, the eggs hatch
and the young spend another two weeks
in the nest. Both parents feed them,
although the female is the primary
breadwinner.
The nestlings eat the same variety
of insects the adults do, namely butterflies, moths, beetles, grasshoppers,
crickets, stinkbugs, flies, bees, wasps
and dragonflies. Parents crush larger
insects in their beaks before feeding
them to nestlings.
JUNE 2017	

They also give them spiders and
small wild fruits.
When they fledge, at 13 to 15 days
old, the family stays together for three
more weeks. Parents defend young and
continue to feed them, with diminishing
frequency.
By midsummer, I no longer hear
the strident calls of the great crested
flycatchers. In September, they are
heading south.
The species' ability to adapt to
nest boxes, helps to keep it common
throughout its breeding range.
In southeastern Pennsylvania, they
were detected in 73 percent of blocks
in the first breeding bird atlas, and were
found in 89 percent of blocks in the
second atlas.
Roy A. Ickes, writing in the Second
Atlas of Breeding Birds in Pennsylvania, said the birds also might benefit
from the increased number of dead trees
and canopy gaps associated with adelgid infestation that has killed hemlocks.
Great crested flycatchers remain
most abundant in the Ridge and Valley,
lower reaches of the Susquehanna and
northwestern corner of the state.
They also live in forested residential
areas around lakes.
Even though they are still widespread here with about 192,000 birds
during the season, their population
declined an estimated 32 percent in
the two decades between the first
(1983-1988) and second (2004-2009)
breeding atlases.
We can only hope that this loudest
and showiest member of the flycatcher
species will continue to adapt in the future to the human-caused changes in its
increasingly fragmented habitat.
63



Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017

Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - Cover1
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 2
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 3
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 4
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 5
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 6
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 7
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 8
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 9
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 10
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 11
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 12
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 13
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 14
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 15
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 16
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 17
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 18
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 19
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 20
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 21
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 22
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 23
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 24
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 25
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 26
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 27
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 28
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Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 30
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 31
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Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 33
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 34
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 35
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 36
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 37
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 38
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 39
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 40
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 41
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Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 43
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Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 45
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Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 49
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 50
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Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 54
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Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 60
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 61
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 62
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 63
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - 64
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - June 2017 - Cover4
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