AUG 
CENTRAL 
have not been recorded. Dot symbols represent counts made on 
estern side of the state; lines without dots represent the eastern 
GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER 
BREEDING RECORDS 
—+-—-, ——.- 
NESTS OR YOUNG ere 1p 
@ 1950 — 
A 1900 — 1949 PaO é 7; 
ea AE “oo 
M BEFORE 1900 
PAIRS OR SINGING 
MALES (JUNE) 
O 1950 — 
A\ 1900 — 1949 
1) BEFORE 1900 
ss 1! % « 
~ | Me 
ate z a 
o- oe es aaa, 
O woncan | Mienoamon >“ laa) ©) 4 
PIR O scorry ip Le out rail EOGAR 
CHRISTIAN ] ha ic 
| 
Oe ae 
ff | 
a macoupln | MONTG! 
tN 
a al ee | 
JERSEY | 
Fig. 15. — Breeding records for the great crested flycatcher in 
Illinois. Singing male records cover the period June 1 to early July. 
and the spring-to-fall ratios show a marked progression 
from northern Illinois (3.8 cresteds in the spring to 1.0 in 
the fall) to central (8.1 in the spring to 1.0 in the fall) to 
south (33.9 in the spring to 1.0 in the fall). The fall 
migration of the crested flycatcher goes largely unseen. 
Crested flycatchers are rare victims of the television 
towers. We know of only five crested specimens among 
the many thousands of night migrants killed at central 
Illinois towers. These cresteds were killed between 
September 2 and 21. There is an apparent geographic 
pattern to the crested kills, for all of the specimens have 
been found at towers west of Champaign County, despite 
the fact that thousands of birds of other species have been 
picked up at towers in Champaign and Vermilion 
counties. We cannot explain this distribution. 
Food Habits 
The stomach contents of five crested flyctacher spec- 
imens constitute virtually all of the available data on the 
species’ food habits in Illinois (Rice 1946, Twomey 1945). 
Obviously, much more study is needed. The food was 
nearly all insects, with unspecified Diptera, Hemiptera, 
Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera making up most of the 
sample. Pattee (1931) also saw that young cresteds in a 
nest were being fed insects, including a large butterfly. 
17 
