Least Flycatcher

The Least Flycatcher, Empidonax minimus, is a small insect-eating bird. This is the smallest Empidonax flycatcher in eastern North America.

Adults have greyish-olive upperparts, darker on the wings and tail, with whitish underparts; they have a conspicuous white eye ring, white wing bars, a small bill and a short tail. The breast is washed with grey and the sides of the belly with yellow. It is similar in appearance to the larger Eastern Wood-Pewee.

Their breeding habitat is open deciduous or mixed woods across Canada and the northern United States. They make a cup nest on a fork in a small tree.

These birds migrate to Mexico and Central America.

They wait on an open perch low or in the middle of a tree and fly out to catch insects in flight, also sometimes picking insects from foliage while hovering. They sometimes eat berries.

The song is a dry che-bec. The call is a sharp whit.