North America has big flycatcher family
David Allen Sibley’s Guide to Birds lists 37 species of flycatchers in North America, 17 of which might be seen in Arkansas.
The scissor-tailed flycatcher is just one. This family of birds, known as Tyrannidae, feeds mainly on insects. They have broad-based flattened bills and are strong, agile fliers capable of making abrupt movements in flight so as to capture bugs.
Though as a family they are called flycatchers, the extended family includes pewees, phoebes and kingbirds.
Perhaps the most notable Arkansas flycatcher is the willow flycatcher. It is the only bird ever introduced into science from Arkansas. The noted painter James Audubon collected a specimen at Arkansas Post in the early 1800s and named it “Traills Flycatcher” in honor of a friend; in some of Audubon’s writings, he calls it the Arkansas flycatcher. The name eventually was changed to willow flycatcher.
Unlike the scissortail, it is very difficult to distinguish the willow flycatcher from four of its close relatives: the Acadian, yellow-bellied, least and alder flycatchers. These five tiny look-alike flycatchers all have eye rings, two wing bars and can be correctly identified only by song and habitat. During migration, any one of them might appear in Arkansas.
Many birders are uncomfortable or unable to claim valid identification of these birds and so simply group them together under their genus name, “Empidonax.” Willow flycatchers are rarely seen in the Natural State today. The most frequently seen flycatcher in Arkansas is the eastern phoebe. It is here yearround and can be distinguished from other sparrow-size birds by its seemingly obsessive tail twitching.
The Eastern and Western kingbirds are flycatchers with wing spans that are about 15 inches, similar to the scissortail; but their tails are much shorter. The eastern kingbird has a distinctive white tip at the end of its tail, and the western has a vivid yellow breast.
The olive-sided flycatcher can be seen in Arkansas woodlands and almost everywhere throughout the continental United States.
The great crested flycatcher is about the weight of the scissortail, but has a much shorter tail with brighter colors than most other birds in its family.
Most colorful of all the flycatchers is the vermilion flycatcher. The male is a brilliant crimson with a cape of black wings, and the female has a pale orange bottom with ash-colored face and wings. Vermilions rarely make an appearance in Arkansas, but for two winters in a row, Arkansas’ rare bird alert system has notified excited birdwatchers that a vermilion flycatcher was spotted near Stuttgart.