Nesting Habits of Two Flycatchers at Lake Tahoe 



BY ANNA HEAD 



TWO species of Flycatchers were very common on the shores of Lake 

 Tahoe, especially during July and the first of August, when the 

 silence of other birds brought into prominence their persistent, 

 unmusical calls. Each species had an area peculiar to itself, and, indeed, 

 each individual pair claimed a limited circle of land, and would allow no 

 trespassing near their nesting-tree. 



The larger of the two, the Olive-sided Flycatcher, chose the very shore 

 of the lake, where immense pines and firs grew in open order on the sandy 

 shore. The first pair I noticed had chosen a nearly dead cedar, about one 

 hundred feet high, as a perching-tree, since from the tip of a bare bough a 

 wide and clear outlook was to be had. Here one or the other of them 

 would perch, never silent from dawn until dark, but flirting its tail, turning 

 its head restlessly from side to side, and uttering its dissyllabic cry of "hip- 

 hip" or "quilp-quilp" at intervals between rapid dashes after winged in- 

 sects. As it whirled and tumbled in the air in frantic pursuit of a moth, it 

 almost seemed to be coming to pieces, so loosely was it jointed, till a loud 

 click of the beak announced success, and in an instant it was back on its 

 perch, looking as if it had always sat there. There were two other notes, 

 heard not quite so often. The more musical was, I think, meant for a 

 song, and was heard chiefly in the early morning and dusk of evening. It 

 consisted of three notes, in a sort of whistling tone, with the emphasis on 

 the second. Each syllable was loud, however, and uttered with a separate 

 effort, so that it carried far. This song may be expressed by the following 

 syllables: "whip-pew-hip!" A third note was more like a twitter, and 

 was uttered during excitement, chiefly when the young were learning to fly. 

 It sounded like "why, why, why," repeated very rapidly a number of times. 

 Sometimes this note was given as a prelude to the real song. 



On July 22 I found a nest on the tip of a slender fir branch, not more 

 than twenty feet from the ground, and in full sight of the favorite perching- 

 tree of this pair. It contained three fully fledged young. They were a 

 pretty sight as they stretched their little wings, craned their necks, and tip- 

 toed along the fir-twigs. They were rather more brightly colored than 

 their parents, whose plumage was somewhat worn at that season. Their 

 heads were a dark, smoky gray, looking almost black in contrast with a 

 light gray streak which went down from the angles of the beak, and a white 

 streak on the center of the breast. Only the Yellow Gape showed imma- 

 turity, and they spent a great deal of time preening their glossy feathers. 

 The parents visited them often, catching insects and delivering them on the 

 wing, with a light, swallow-like action. They never perched far away, 



(153) 



