Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher (Empidonax flaviventris)

County List:

Rule:

Forested Landscapes or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

      Treed Bog
   containing:
      Dead Down Woody Debris

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Habitat: In summer, it is most often found in partially open to almost solid spruce bogs, where sphagnum moss forms much of the ground cover and where small trees are scattered among the taller spruce. Many birds are also found in alder thickets grown to moss and grasses. The eight observations made in the Atlas Habitat Survey were all in wet conifer forests and included sites dominated by spruce, tamarack, and white cedar.

Unlike other Michigan flycatchers, the yellow-bellied builds its nest on the ground in thick sphagnum. Some nests are sunken into the moss so that the sitting adult is nearly impossible to see, while other nests are open on top. Some nests are built on the sides of moss-draped roots of fallen trees, tucked back into the moss but a few feet above ground level. Nest sites are sometimes close to small streams or pools.

Habitat: Breeding: Coniferous forests; low, wet, swampy thickets bordering ponds, streams and bogs, spruce and alder swamps, cool moist mountainsides.

Special Habitat Requirements: Coniferous forests, low wet areas.

It spends the summer in spruce bogs and other damp northern forests, where it places its nest on the ground in sphagnum moss or among tree roots.

Habitat: Woods; in summer, boreal forests, muskegs, bogs. Breeds in wet northern forests, especially in spruce bogs with ground cover of sphagnum moss, also in tamarack-white cedar swamps and in willow-alder thickets along streams in dense conifer forests.

Diet: Mostly insects. Feeds on a variety of small insects, both flying types and those taken from foliage, including many ants and small wasps, also flies, beetles, true bugs, caterpillars, moths and others. Also eats many spiders and eats small numbers of berries and sometimes seeds.

Nest: Site is usually in dense sphagnum moss on or just above the ground in boggy places; sometimes placed among the upturned roots of a fallen tree or in other sheltered low spot. Generally well hidden within mosses with only a small entrance showing and very difficult to find.