Gray Flycatcher

About the Gray Flycatcher

Empidonax flycatchers are famous for being hard to identify, but the Gray Flycatcher has a gift for birders. Instead of flicking its tail up like its relatives, it dips the tail slowly downward, like a phoebe. That one habit is often the fastest way to name it.

It is a pale, plain gray bird with a long tail, a thin eye ring, and a two-toned bill with a pale base. It hunts from low, open perches and drops to the ground for insects more often than other Empidonax.

In Texas it breeds in small numbers in the high Trans-Pecos and passes through the west in migration. These photographs come from the Davis Mountains Preserve in June 2023 and Dog Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains National Park in August 2024.