Acadian Flycatcher on the Little Miami Bike Trail

I was about a quarter mile down the trail when this little Acadian Flycatcher caught my attention. His song burst through the trees, loud and short and familiar—practically demanding that I look for him! As I slowed and started focusing in the leaves of a tree just off the trail, he suddenly plopped down on a branch out in the open and started singing. A plain little bird that looks like so many others, there is no mistaking his song, especially when he tosses his head back to sing it.

When he sings he tosses his head high, and if you're standing

below, all you can see is that little yellow lower mandible.

In the summer, I hear Acadian Flycatchers all the time on the Little Miami Trail. The heavily wooded riverside path is their textbook-perfect breeding habitat. In this stretch of the trail, four small creeks tumble down the hillside and feed into the Little Miami River. Our little migrant was staking his claim very close to one of those feeders.

The sun was so intense on Saturday that as it filtered

through the green leaves it cast a green glow on the bird.

Acadian Flycatchers are fun little birds to watch because they often sit still for a few minutes, and that gives you ample time to study them (unlike those cute little warblers that seem to be here, there, and everywhere). Our fellow, in between singing and looking for bugs, liked to preen, and he was very good at it too, doing it a lot!

You can even see his lower yellow bill while he preens.

What a cutie!

No matter how tolerant a bird is to the clicking

of my camera shutter, every now and

then he still has to give me the eye!