Western Flycatcher

Empidonax difficilis

OrderPasseriformes

FamilyTyrannidae

HabitatShady mountain forest, canyons, and streamsides

SeasonSummer in the Guadalupe and Davis Mountains; uncommon migrant in West Texas

LocationThe Bowl, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, Culberson County, Texas

Size5.5-6.5 inches

DietSmall flying insects caught from shaded perches

ConservationLeast Concern (IUCN)

CameraNikon Z9Lens800mmAperturef/8Shutter1/1250ISO800

Western Flycatcher in the shade of the pines at The Bowl.

About the Western Flycatcher

The Western Flycatcher is a small olive-and-yellow Empidonax with a teardrop-shaped eye ring that bulges behind the eye. It is a bird of cool, shady mountain forest, where it hunts from low branches under the canopy.

Its name has changed twice. For decades it was one species, then it was split into the Pacific-slope and Cordilleran Flycatchers, and in 2023 the two were lumped back together as the Western Flycatcher. The birds that breed in the Texas mountains belong to the interior, Cordilleran group.

In Texas it nests only in the highest mountains of the Trans-Pecos. This photograph was made in The Bowl in Guadalupe Mountains National Park on August 27, 2023.

Want to see a Western Flycatcher in the wild?
Join one of my guided birding tours! Fine art prints of my photos are also available.

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