Figure 343. The Least Flycatcher is a rare, regular fall transient along the coast. It is much less regular inland and at other times of the year, with two nesting records. This first-year bird was photographed in December 1985 in Torrance, Los Angeles County (Brian E. Small).

 

 

 

 

 

LEAST FLYCATCHER Empidonax minimus (Baird and Baird, 1843)

Accepted: 23 (77%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 7	CBRC review: records from 1972 through 19791
Not submitted/reviewed: NA	Color image: none

This flycatcher’s northern breeding limit extends from the central Yukon east to Labrador (local) and the Maritime Provinces. The southern limit stretches from northeastern Washington (rare and sporadic, but increasing) east to Maine and south locally through the Appalachian Mts. to northern Georgia. The species also breeds rarely and locally in both northeastern Oregon (Marshall et al. 2003) and Colorado (Briskie 1994, T. Leukering in litt.). Johnson (1994) provided a useful overview of this species’ recent westward expansion. Most birds winter from southern Sonora and southern Tamaulipas south to northern Nicaragua. Small numbers winter annually in Florida, very rarely or casually elsewhere in the southern United States, and as far south as western Panama. Most migrants pass over and around the western Gulf of Mexico and through central and eastern Mexico. The species is a very rare migrant, primarily in fall, across the West, and is considered casual or accidental in Alaska (most exceptionally to St. Lawrence Island), Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Iceland (BW 16:435-440).

California’s first Least Flycatcher was collected on 29 June 1896 in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County (Roberson 1980, USNM 416578). Seventy-one years passed without another record, but between 1967 and 1987 the state accumulated at least 11 specimen records, nine involving fall transients along the coast. Exceptional were an adult male collected on 8 July 1968 at Southeast Farallon Island (CAS 68478) and a first-winter male collected on 31 December 1986 south of Brawley in Imperial County (SDNHM 44572).

Once its identification was worked out (see Binford 1983, Whitney and Kaufman 1985), the Least Flycatcher became recognized as a rare but regular fall migrant along the coast, particularly in September/October. It was removed from the CBRC’s review list in 1979. Records average 3.4 per fall on Southeast Farallon Island (cf. Richardson et al. 2003). The species is casual in spring, summer, and winter, and inland at all times of the year. Nesting was confirmed in the Warner Mts. of Modoc County in 1984 (Morlan and Erickson 1988) and near the confluence of Humboldt County’s Van Duzen and Eel Rivers in 2003 (NAB 57:542).

¹On the review list 1972–1980