Description
A 13-cm-long bird with a relatively large head, gray (sometimes olive-tinged) dorsum (browner in juveniles), bold white eye ring, two white wing bars (buffy in juveniles), whitish throat, gray-washed breast, yellowish belly and undertail coverts (whitish in juveniles), and a short, flattened triangular bill (lower mandible mostly pale). See Whitney and Kaufmann (1985) for further details on identification. Song is a dry "che-bek," accented on the second syllable (NGS 1983).
Habitat
Open woodland and brushy areas, forest borders, thinned woodland, tall second growth. In maple forests in Quebec, occurred where trees were the tallest, sugar maple was in nearly pure stand, and subcanopy was sparse (Darveau 1992).
Nests in poplar woodland, deciduous scrub, forest edge, parks, old orchards, roadside shade trees, and gardens; in crotch or on limb of tree (often deciduous) or shrub, often 3-6 m above ground.
Ecology
In maple forests in Quebec, density averaged 1.7 pairs/ha (Darveau et al. 1992). In New Hampshire, least flycatchers locally excluded ASY (after second year) American redstarts from the best patches of habitat within a heterogeneous array of such patches (Sherry and Holmes 1988). In winter, solitary and sedentary, both sexes territorial (Stiles and Skutch 1989, Rappole and Warner 1980).
Reproduction
Clutch size is 2-6 (usually 4). Incubation lasts 14-16 days, by female (which male may feed). Young leave nest at 13-16 days, tended by both parents for up to 20 days after leaving nest.