Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE FREE-TOED PERCHING BIRDS
THE TYRANT-BIRDS
The Great-crested Flycatcher
(Myiarchus crinitus) of eastern North America may be taken as the typical example of Myiarchus, a large genus of some thirty-five species which spreads generally over North, Central, and South America and the West Indian Islands. This species is about nine inches long, dull greenish olive above, the wings and tail brownish, while the sides of the head and neck as well as the throat and upper breast are bluish ashy, and the entire under parts bright sulphur-yellow; the head is provided with a depressed crest, but is without the bright-colored, concealed spot so common in other Tyrant-birds. This bird is partial to open woodland and forests, where its loud, shrill but not especially unmusical call is frequently heard. It is of exceedingly irritable and pugnacious disposition, attacking nearly all the birds of its size with which it comes in contact. The nest, a rather slight affair of grasses, rootlets, etc., is placed in a hole of some sort, usually a hole in a tree, fence rail, or post, and almost invariably has woven into it the cast-off skin of a snake. The object of the snake skin is conjectural, possibly for the purpose of ornament or to frighten away intruders. The eggs are four or five in number and have a cream-colored ground over which is scattered longitudinal lines of rich purple and brown.