The Gray Flycatcher 
No. 176 
Gray Flycatcher 
A. O. U. No. 469.1. Empidonax griseus Brewster. 
Description. — Adult: Similar to E. wrighti, but wing averaging decidedly 
longer, tail shorter, bill longer and relatively narrower, and coloration much grayer 
above (Ridgway). Also decidedly larger; the first primary (outermost) equal to or 
longer than the 6th (as in£. hammondi ); the tail less or not at all emarginate; the outer 
web of the lateral pair of rectrices definitely white. The terminal third of mandible 
brownish dusky; the basal portion lilaceous white (not variable as in E. wrighti). 
Measurements—av. of seven males from the Colorado River: Length (skins) 139.6 
(5.50); wing 71 (2.80); tail 59 (2.32); bill 12.3 (.49); width at nostril 5.1 (.20); tarsus 
18.3 (.72). 
Recognition Marks. —Warbler size; obscure grayish coloration; larger and 
grayer than E. wrighti , but not certainly distinguishable out of hand. 
Nesting. — Nest: A deep cup composed externally of grasses, weed-stems, and 
weathered bark-strips; felted internally with finer materials, including feathers; placed 
two or three feet high in greasewood or sage. Eggs: 3 or 4; ovate or short-ovate; 
pale creamy white. Av. of 14 specimens from Mono County, in the M. C. O. coll.: 
17 x 13.2 (.67 x .52). Season: June; one brood. 
General Range. —“Southwestern United States and Mexico. Breeds from 
mountains of southern California [discredited], Arizona [no evidence], and southern 
New Mexico [no evidence], to southern end of the Mexican tableland [??]; winters 
from southern California and southern Arizona south in Lower California and Mexico 
to Puebla and Tepic. Casual in Colorado” (A. O. U. Check-List, 3rd Ed., with brack¬ 
ets by author). 
Conjectural Range. —Summer resident, of very local distribution, in the 
Upper Sonoran life zone of the Great Basin region, probably north into Washington. 
South in winter to southern Mexico. 
Distribution in California. —Of sharply localized occurrence as a breeder in 
the high-lying sage sections east of the Sierras (Mono Craters, June 2-7, 1919; June 
12-14, 1922). Fairly common in winter in the southeastern deserts and in the valley 
of the Colorado. 
Authorities.—Baird, Brewer and Ridgway {Empidonax obsctirus), Hist. N. 
Am. Birds, vol. iii., 1874, p. 520 (San Buenaventura, winter); Grinnell, Pasadena Acad. 
Sci., Pub. no. 2, 1898, p. 31, part (Los Angeles Co.; lowlands in fall and winter); ibid., 
Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 93 (status in Calif.); Nelson, Auk, vol. xxi., 
1904, p. 80 (crit.; nomencl.); Walker, Condor, vol. vi., 1914, p. 94 (Crook Co., Ore.; 
desc. nest and eggs); Dickey and Van Rossem, Condor, vol. xxiv., 1922, p. 137 (White 
Mts.: probably breeding). 
Remarks. —The case of Empidonax griseus is, without exception, the most 
baffling in the current annals of western ornithology. First recognized by Dr. Brewster, 
in 1889, from specimens taken in Lower California (La Paz), it was for years hopelessly 
confused with E. wrighti, which it so closely resembles. Grinnell erroneously recorded 
it as resident in Los Angeles County, and, later, as the breeding bird of the San Ber¬ 
nardinos; but careful study of the breeding birds of the San Jacinto Mountains in 1908 
convinced him of his error, and laid under suspicion all previous records of the occur- 
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