Nature PEI

Olive-sided Flycatcher — Threatened

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Contopus cooperi

Announcing its presence by its whistled call “Quick! Three Beers” the Olive-sided Flycatcher can be heard from a kilometre away. Unfortunately, that call was heard less often in PEI over the past 30 years. The Second Atlas of Breeding Birds of the Maritime Provinces recorded a few sightings in Queens and Kings counties, and fewer in western PEI. We in PEI are less likely to see this bird now, compared to 1991, when the first Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas was completed. However, slight improvements in statusacross its rangehas led to a more recent recommendation of status as Special Concern, not yet implemented.From perches on dead limbs, the Olive-sided Flycatcher looks for insects in coniferous mature forests, by wetlands, or at the edge of any natural or human-made clearings. It launches itself to catch bees, wasps and other insects, and often returns to the same perch to repeat another hunt.

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