Ash-throated Flycatcher

About the Ash-throated Flycatcher

A slim, pale flycatcher of the arid West, the Ash-throated Flycatcher is soft gray-brown above with a whitish-gray throat, a pale lemon wash on the belly, and warm rufous edges in the wings and tail. A member of the crested Myiarchus group, it has a peaked head and an upright, watchful posture.

It sallies from an open perch after insects and also takes small fruit, and it gives a soft, rolling ka-brick call from the mesquite and juniper. A cavity nester, it uses old woodpecker holes, natural hollows, fence posts, and even pipes and mailboxes.

In Texas the Ash-throated Flycatcher is a warm-season breeder across the western two-thirds of the state, arriving in spring to mesquite savanna, juniper hills, and desert scrub, then heading south by fall.

A note from behind the lens: their habit of perching in the open on a bare twig or fence wire makes them cooperative. Get to eye level, keep the background clean and distant, and catch the flick of rufous in the tail as one launches after a passing insect.