Acadian Flycatcher

Look for

A small olive-green flycatcher with two bold white wing bars, a pale eye-ring, and a yellowish wash on the belly. Looks like every other Empidonax flycatcher — which is to say, indistinguishable by sight from Least, Willow, or Alder.

Only reliable ID is by voice.

Size: ~5.75" — small, sparrow-sized.

Listen for

• Song: an explosive "PEE-ZAY!" or "peet-SEE!" — a rising, two-syllable burst that ends as abruptly as it starts. Loud for such a small bird. Sounds like a bird hiccup.
• Call: a dry "peet".

The song is the ID. If you're in a hollow or bottomland forest in summer and hear "PEE-ZAY!" from the canopy, it's an Acadian Flycatcher.

Where in Memphis

Present along bottomland creek corridors:

• Wolf River Greenway (reliable)
• Meeman-Shelby Forest — hollow streams
• T.O. Fuller ravines

Why Montgomery Bell is classic habitat

Acadian Flycatchers need forested ravines with streams + hemlocks (or closed canopy). Montgomery Bell's hollow creeks and hemlock ravines are classic Acadian habitat — especially along Creech Hollow Trail and creek stretches throughout the park.

They arrive late April and sing constantly through July.

Behavior

• Sally flycatchers — perch motionless on a branch 10–30 ft up, dart out to snag a fly or wasp mid-air, return to the same perch.
• Occupy the mid-story — below canopy, above understory.
• Build beautiful hanging cup nests suspended from a horizontal fork, often with long grasses or spider silk trailing below like streamers.
• Mate call is loud; feeding calls are quiet — territorial males are easy to find, but the same bird foraging is nearly silent.

Story

The Empidonax identification puzzle

Five Empidonax flycatchers pass through Tennessee: | Species | Song | Where | |---|---|---| | Acadian | "PEE-ZAY!" | Forested ravines | | Least | "che-BECK!" | Edges, migration | | Willow | "FITZ-bew!" | Wet shrubs | | Alder | "FREE-beer!" | Wet shrubs, migration | | Yellow-bellied | "chi-BUNK" | Migration |

They all look functionally identical. This is birding's famous "Empid ID crisis" — the species were even considered inseparable by sight until DNA confirmed distinct lineages.

Not named for Acadia

Alexander Wilson (naming warblers AND flycatchers after places in 1810) collected the first specimen in "Acadia" — then a loose term for coastal Canada and Maine. The bird doesn't breed in Acadia National Park; it breeds in the Southeast. Another nomenclature casualty.

Ravines and cool microclimates

Acadian Flycatchers thrive in hemlock ravines — cool, shaded, moist microclimates. The hemlock woolly adelgid (invasive insect) is killing Eastern hemlocks across the Appalachians; Acadian flycatcher populations have been declining modestly in adelgid-damaged areas.

Montgomery Bell has some remaining hemlocks in its ravines — enough for the species to persist.

Fun facts

• Scientific name virescens means "greening" in Latin.
• They winter in northern South America — Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador.
• Oldest known wild Acadian Flycatcher: 11+ years.
• Their tail-wag when perched is subtle compared to other Empids — a very quick upward flick rather than a big sweep.
• They defend territories of ~3 acres in ravine systems.