TYRANT FLYCATCHERS: Family Tyrannidae [ 393 ] 



Texas south into Mexico. Winters to Central America. In Oregon: Not common 

 summer resident of lower timber and slopes of eastern Oregon and Umpqua and 

 Rogue River Valleys west of Cascades. 



THE SHY and comparatively silent Ash-throated Flycatcher is the direct 

 antithesis of the noisy and quarrelsome kingbirds. It is a bird of the 

 mixed juniper or yellow pine and deciduous growth in the hot canyons 

 or dry hillsides where the forest and desert meet. Although found over 

 quite a wide territory it is locally most abundant in the timbered foot- 

 hills of the eastern Rogue River Valley and in the hot dry canyons along 

 the eastern slope of the Cascades in Wasco and Deschutes Counties. There 

 it may be found perched silently on the dead lower limbs of some gnarled 

 tree, remaining motionless except for short dashes after insects. 



Little has been written about this retiring flycatcher, although it is a 

 constant summer resident of the State. Bendire (Brewer 1875) ^ rst re ~ 

 corded it from Oregon on the basis of a sight record near Camp Harney, 

 and he found the first nest on June 2.0, 1876, in the same locality (Bendire 

 1877). Miller (1904) listed it from the John Day Valley, Woodcock 

 (1901) quoted Bryant as recording its presence at Jacksonville in 1883, 

 and Walker (1917^ found it at Redmond, Sisters, and The Dalles. The 

 manuscript files of the Biological Survey contain a number of notes 

 that were of use in drawing up the ranges given above, but all other 

 published records have been our own. We have found it in Douglas, 

 Jackson, and Josephine Counties west of the Cascades and in Wasco, 

 Grant, Sherman, Umatilla, Wheeler, Crook, Deschutes, Lake, Harney, 

 and Malheur Counties east of the Cascades. It arrives in May (earliest 

 date, May n, Jackson County) and remains until late August, decreasing 

 rapidly in numbers in mid-August. The latest fall date in our own 

 records is September 3, but there is a specimen in the Bishop collection 

 (Willett 1933) taken by W. E. Sherwood at Ashland, on October 2.5, 

 192.3, which is not only the latest fall date for Oregon but for the Pacific 

 Coast States. 



We have few nesting records, although this indicates a lack of ob- 

 servers rather than a scarcity of birds. Patterson took a set of eggs, May 

 10, 1930, in Jackson County; and Braly, a set of five eggs near Sisters, 

 June 15, 1931, which so far as known to us are the only actual sets of 

 Oregon eggs taken recently. 



Say's Phoebe: 



Sayornis saya saya (Bonaparte) 



DESCRIPTION. "Upper parts olive gray, darker on head; under parts whitish, 

 tinged below with pale yellowish, sides of breast with olive gray. Length: 6.2.5- 

 7.00, wing 3.2.5-3.55, tail 3.00-3.40." (Bailey) Nest: On beams in barns, bridges, 

 and houses, or on ledges in caves, banks, or cliffs, built of mud mixed with weak 

 stems, grass, moss, hair, feathers, paper, or similar material. Eggs: 3 to 6, white, 

 sometimes dotted with brown about the large end. 



