Tufted Flycatcher - Southeast Arizona

A Mexican species, Tufted Flycatcher, Mitrephanes phaeocercus, was discovered on 5 May, in Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains by Daniele Mitchell from Canada. Today, 6 May, the Tufted Flycatcher was being seen in Cave Creek Canyon at the Herb Martyr Campground, part of Coronado National Forest. 

Tufted Flycatcher was first found in the U.S. in Rio Grande Village, a part Big Bend National Park, Texas, from 3 November '91 - 17 January '92.  In Texas, this species if found as far north as southern Tamaulipas, Mexico.  South of Arizona, Tufted Flycatcher occurs north to northeast Sonora and northwest Chihuahua, where it is a migrant in the northern part of its range. 

It is pictured nicely in National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America,  Fifth Edition, and in A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Central America by Steve N.G. Howell and Sophie Webb. 

Tufted Flycatcher is a highland species, found in Mexico in humid and semihumid pine-oak associations, and in evergreen and semideciduous forests and edge  habitats.  In behavior it resembles a pewee, fly-catching from an open perch, often sallying out and returning to the same perch.

Bill Maynard
Editor - Winging It

Comments

[P. D. Hulce]

For Bill Maynard: The story about the Tufted Flycatcher on the PEEPS page is incorrect. The bird was found and identified by Daniele Mitchell from Canada. At lunch on Monday, he told me about it and it was obvious he did not know how rare it was for the US. I immediately took my birding group there and relocated it. PLEASE change your story and credit Daniele with the discovery.