42 
OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 250 
FLYCATCHERS 
The group of birds known as the Tyrant Flycatchers is an 
American family, having no counterpart in the Old World. There 
is great variation in size, plumage, nesting habits, and in choice of 
habitat, but all are songless, insectivorous birds, procuring their food 
while on the wing. A dead branch, permitting an unobstructed 
view, is usually chosen as a perch, from which they make frequent 
short flights after insects, returning to or"near the same limb after 
capturing their prey. 
KINGBIRD, Tyrannus tyrannus (Linn.) 
This well known Flycatcher is a common summer resident 
throughout the state. It is preeminently an orchard dweller and 
may be looked for wherever orchards are found. 
Insects, mostly noxious, form 90 percent of the food, the remain¬ 
der being wild fruit. The wide-spread prejudice among bee-keep¬ 
ers against this bird, because of the occasional destruction of honey 
bees by it, is without foundation. The examination of 218 stomachs 
of this species has proven that it is the exception, rather than the 
rule, that bees are taken. Of the stomachs examined, only 14 con¬ 
tained the remains of honey bees, four of which were with certainty 
identified as workers, forty were drones, and six were unidentified. 
This species is not only practically harmless to the interests of the 
apiarist, but a more than compensating benefit results from its 
capture of the robber-flies which prey on honey bees. The King¬ 
bird’s dislike for Hawks is well known and the feathered neighbors 
of this species are protected by it from the depredations of Hawks 
as well as of Crows. 
PHOEBE, Sayornisphoebe (Lath.) 
Of the Flycatchers, this species is the earliest to reach us in the 
spring as it is also the latest to depart in autumn. It arrives about 
the middle of March and lingers until late October.' The nests of 
this species are probably more frequently infested with vermin than 
those of any other of our birds. Sometimes the parent birds are 
forced to abandon their young to their fate. Dusting with insect- 
powder (pyrethrum) will destroy the vermin without injury to the 
nestlings. 
Ninety-three percent of the food consists of insects, chiefly 
noxious species, most important of which are click-beetles, May- 
beetles, weevils, grasshoppers and flies. Two broods of young, of 
from four to six each, are usually reared in a season, the accom¬ 
plishing of which results in the destruction of an enormous number 
of insects. When insects are not obtainable, vegetable substances, 
