Empidonax Demystified

A slowly-evolving effort to promote understanding and appreciation of
the flycatchers currently known as empids

By Arch McCallum

The days of Empidonax as the most difficult-to-identify North American songbirds may be numbered. I have been studying this genus for 17 years and I long ago came to the conclusion that it should be split into four genera. A recent phylogenetic study provides some ammunition for that view. We'll see what the taxonomists have to say. Changing the scientific names of Empidonax spp. won't make them easier to identify, but it will highlight the differences among the groups, and, I think, make the entire assemblage more accessible to the birding public. Meanwhile, they are straightforward to identify by ear, especially if you pay attention to syntax, and that is the mission of this site.

This page is a new portal to materials I have produced over the years to help with field identification of empids and their close kin, the phoebes, pewees, and tufted flycatchers. Here's what's currently available. Some haven't been revised in years, but are still accurate in my opinion.

• The evolution of Empidonax (2005) I put this together a long time ago. It is based on the work of Ned K. Johnson and Carla Cicero, which was published in 2002. Dr. Cicero looked at the tree I drew from their publication and found it satisfactory. This section describes the four major branches (clades) recognized by Johnson and Cicero. In 2018, Jon Fjeldsa et al. published results that confirm the validity of those four clades, but find no evidence that they are or aren't each other's closest relatives, i.e., Empidonax may not be monophyletic. I will discuss these issues fully elsewhere.
• Vocalizations of the Western Flycatcher Complex (2005).
• Vocal repertoires of Traill's Flycatchers (2008)
• Field Guides Pages for Western Empids (2011) and Eastern Empids (2020). The eastern page is new, and has an introduction that discusses the phylogenetic context of the five eastern species.
• You might also want to consult a brief introduction to sonograms