FLYCATCHERS: WRIGHT FLYCATCHER 
439 
south to western Texas, New Mexico, and California; winters from northern to 
southern Mexico. 
State Records. —The Wright Flycatcher has been found breeding in northern 
New Mexico. A nest containing young was found July 18, 1904, at 7,400 feet near 
Taos (Bailey); and on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in San Miguel 
County, it was found breeding most commonly at 9,000 feet (Mitchell). It also 
breeds at 0,800 feet near Willis (Henshaw); at 7,000 feet at Fort Wingate (Hollister); 
Santa Fe (Henshaw); [7,500 feet near Santa Fe (Jensen, 1922) at 8,000 feet, 7 miles 
east of Santa Fe, June 23, 1927 (Ligon).] 
In the fall migration it. was taken at 9,900 feet near Hopewell (Gaut); and near 
Glen north of Rosewell September 22, 1904 (Hollister). This last record marks 
the most eastern limit of the range in the State and also about the latest date at 
which the species occurs in New Mexico. It was found at Apache until September 
16 (Anthony). 
In the spring, it occurs as a migrant in southwestern New Mexico, where it 
was noted April 6-30, 1886 (Anthony); April 22, 1892, on the southern boundary, 
a hundred miles west of the Rio Grande (Mearns); Silver City, April 22-June 6, 
1883 (Marsh). At Rinconada the first was taken April 29, 1904 (Surber).—W. W. 
Cooke. 
Nest. —“A neat, compact, deep-cupped nest in a crotch of a bush or sapling; 
commonly lined with feathers or hair” (Coues). Eggs: 3-4, white, unmarked. 
General Habits. —In Colorado in summer, Mr. Henshaw found the 
Wright Flycatcher a bird of the mountains, frequenting deciduous trees 
and bushes along streams; and in Arizona he found it among the oak 
openings; but in the vicinity of Santa Fe he saw it on pinyon-clad hills, 
and at Lake Burford Doctor Wet more found it common among junipers 
and pines on the diy hillsides above the gulches. Sometimes, the small 
birds were seen perching near the ground, at others mounting thirty or 
forty feet in the yellow pines. Sometimes, Doctor Wetmore says, “they 
hopped restlessly from one perch to another trying several in succession 
before being satisfied. . . . The ordinary call note was a loud tsee^-wick, 
given almost as one syllable, that when near at hand was startlingly like 
the chebec of the Least Flycatcher. . . . The males had a peculiar 
jerky song divided into couplets with slight pauses between, that may be 
represented by the syllables see-wick , tsee-ee, see-wick , tsil-ly tsee-ee” 
(1920a, p. 401). One that we found in a cottonwood grove near Taos, 
when not too busy feeding its young in the nest over our tent, kept up a 
pleasant see-wick , see-wick , see-wick , and swee-hoo. 
Two nests, found by H. H. Sheldon in California, were “very beauti¬ 
fully constructed; each was placed in a manzanita bush, and composed 
of bark fibers of the same, so as to resemble the surroundings” (1907, p. 
189). Of two discovered in northern Nevada by Doctor Taylor, one was 
fastened to its supporting branches with sheep’s wool and the other with 
spider-web. One of the females while adding material was “all the while 
uttering a series of ‘ker-wit’ call-notes, and occasionally notes of differ¬ 
ent inflection” (1912, p. 376). 
Additional Literature. — Pierce, W. M., Condor, XVIII, 180, 181, 1916. 
