American Grey Flycatcher

Empidonax wrightii Baird

Yaich and Larrison (1973:14–16) found a nest of this flycatcher at Wenas Park, 10 miles from Naches, Washington, 26 May 1972. The following day a brown-headed cowbird laid an egg in it alongside the 2 eggs of the host. This is the first record in print for this species as a cowbird victim. Mr. R. M. Lais informed us that another parasitized nest was found in the Malheur Lake area, central Oregon, by T. W. Haislip. In reply to request for more explicit data on this record, Mr. Haislip generously expanded it, as follows. In 1970 and 1971, in the western juniper woodlands of central Oregon, he found the gray flycatcher to be the most abundant breeding bird, averaging about 25 pairs per 100 hectares (cowbirds averaged about 3 “pairs” per 100 hectares). Of 28 nests found, 7 were parasitized; there was 30 percent parasitism in 1970, and 20 percent in 1971. Of the 7 parasitized nests only 3 fledged a single cowbird apiece. In none of the 7 did any of the host young survive, and in no nest was more than a single cowbird egg found.

It appears that the gray flycatcher is a regular host choice of the brown-headed cowbird in central Oregon, and probably is more affected elsewhere than the absence of published records would indicate.

WESTERN FLYCATCHER