The Olive-Sided Flycatcher {Nuttaiiomis boreaiis) 



Description. — Adult: Upper parts brownish slate with a just perceptible tinge 

 of olivaceous on back ; top of head a deeper shade, and without olivaceous ; wings 

 and tail dusky-blackish, the former with some brownish gray edging only on 

 tertials; flank-tufts of fluffy, yellowish or white feathers, sometimes spreading 

 across rump and in marked contrast to it, but usually concealed by wings ; throat, 

 belly and crissum, and sometimes middle Hne of breast, white or yellowish white; 

 heavily shaded on sides and sometimes across breast with brownish gray or olive- 

 brown, — the feathers with darker shafts-streaks; bill black above, pale yellow 

 below; feet black. Immature: Similar to adult, but coloration a little brighter; 

 wing-coverts fulvous or bufify. Length 7.00-8.00 (177.8-203.2); wing 4.16 

 (105.7) ; tail 2.64 (67.1) ; bill from nostril .53 (13.5). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow to Chewink size ; heavy shaded sides ; bill yel- 

 low below; tezv-teiv note; keeps high in trees during migrations. 



Nesting. — Not known to breed in Ohio. Nest, a shallow cup of twigs, bark- 

 strips, etc., lined with grass and moss ; saddled upon horizontal limb of coniferous 

 trees, often at great heights. Eggs, 3-5, creamy-white or pale buff, spotted dis- 

 tinctly with chestnut and rufous, and obscurely with purplish and lavender, chiefly 

 in ring about larger end. Average size, .85 x .63 (21.6 x 16.). 



'General Range. — North America, breeding from the northern and the higher 

 mountainous parts of the United States northward to British Columbia, and the 

 Saskatchewan River. Accidental on the Lower Yukon and in Greenland. In 

 winter south to Central America, Columbia and northern Peru. 



A familiar resident in the mountains of the west and not uncommon in New 

 England, this large Flycatcher is known to us only as a rare migrant passing to 

 and from its home in the Laurentian highlands. It is not a sociable bird, but 

 migrates in solitary fashion, and roosts high in some scantily clad or dead tree, 

 wherever night may chance to overtake it. At such times it expresses its distrust 

 of the bird-man, craning his neck from below, by occasional alarm notes of singu- 

 lar resonance and penetrating quality, tezv-tew, tew-tezv, tezv, teiv, tetv. Besides 

 this he has a loud call, swee-chetv, which is one of the characteristic notes of the 

 dense evergreen forests in which the bird spends its summer. "Three Cheers," he 

 seems to say — as a gold-miner in the Cascade Mountains of Washington once put 

 it. And, truly, for one who has been delving all day in the bowels of the silent 

 earth, the greeting which this bird shouts down from the topmost twig of some 

 giant fir is most welcome and enspiriting. 



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