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Crested or Great Crested Flycatcher
Adult--Upper parts olive brown or gray; tail and edges of primaries chestnut; feathers on crown rather long, forming a short crest; under parts pale gray on throat and breast, shading into pale lemon yellow on the belly. Length--9.01.
Breeding Range--Throughout the Eastern States.
Nest in a hollow in a tree; it is rather bulky, composed of grasses, weeds, feathers, and frequently cast-off snake skins. The eggs, 3 to 6 in number, are buff-colored, with numerous light and rather dark wine-colored or purplish longitudinal streaks and scratches. Size--.82 x .62. See Fig. 2, Plate C.
This noisy flycatcher is in some places a very common bird. He chooses almost any sort of hole for his nest, the size making but little difference to him; neither does he seem very particular as to the kind of tree, though most of the nests I have found were in dead or partly dead apple trees. Once I knew of a bluebird's nest containing young about four days old; near this nest a pair of Crested Flycatchers were constantly to be seen. Day after day I visited the place in order to watch and photograph the young bluebirds, and my friends the flycatchers were invariably either on some part of the tree or very near to it. This was during the third week in May, and therefore rather early for them to be nesting. A week after the bluebirds had flown, the flycatchers commenced building, placing their collection of material on the top of the bluebird's abandoned nest. Usually the hole chosen is not more than twenty feet from the ground, and often not more than six feet.
The nesting season commences about the last week in May.