Alder flycatcher
Empidonax alnorum
 
ITIS Species Code:   178340         NatureServ Element Code:   ABPAE33030
 
Taxa: 
Order: 
Family: 
Aves
Passeriformes
Tyrannidae
NatureServe Global Rank: 
NatureServe State (NC) Rank: 
 
G5
S2B,SZN
 
Federal Status: 
NC State Status: 
 
---
SR
 
 
PARTNERS IN FLIGHT PRIORITY SCORES:
Southern Blue Ridge:  16 Southern Piedmont:  15 South Atl. Coastal Plain:  n/a
 
HEXAGONAL KNOWN RANGE:PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:
 
SUMMARY OF STATEWIDE PREDICTED DISTRIBUTION:
 
Land Unit

US Fish & Wildlife Service
US Forest Service
US National Park Service
US Department of Defense
NC State Parks
NC University System
NC Wildlife Res. Com.
NC Forest Service
NC Div. of Coastal Mgmt.
Local Governments
Non-Governmental Org.
Other Public Lands
Private Lands

GAP Status 1-2
All Protected Lands
Statewide
 
Hectares

0.00
9,735.48
0.00
9,742.95
593.73
0.54
68.85
0.00
0.00
588.06
1,305.27
0.00
8,407.08

13,509.72
22,032.09
30,441.96
 
Acres

0.00
24,056.89
0.00
24,075.35
1,467.14
1.33
170.13
0.00
0.00
1,453.13
3,225.39
0.00
20,774.34

33,383.24
54,442.47
75,223.71
% of Dist. on
Prot. Lands

0.0 %
44.2 %
0.0 %
44.2 %
2.7 %
< 0.1 %
0.3 %
0.0 %
0.0 %
5.9 %
5.9 %
0.0 %
0.0 %

61.3 %
-----   
-----   
% of Dist. on
All Lands

0.0 %
32.0 %
0.0 %
32.0 %
2.0 %
< 0.1 %
0.2 %
0.0 %
0.0 %
1.9 %
4.3 %
0.0 %
27.6 %

44.4 %
-----   
-----   
 
HABITAT DESCRIPTION:
Rare and local in the northwest mountains (Hamel 1992) with occurrences listed in Watauga and Haywood counties, as well as near Roan Mtn. and in the Black mountains (Hamel 1992, Lowther 1999, Potter et al 1980, Simpson 1992).

In the higher elevations, both bogs with scattered shrubs and saplings, and uplands with shrub/saplings thickets, are used (Hamel 1992). Kaufman (1996) lists this flycatcher as normally occurring 'near water, as around streams, ponds, or bogs.'

Nest is usually in a deciduous shrub or sapling (Hamel 1992, Lowther 1999), averaging about 2 feet above the ground (Kaufman 1996). Construction consists of grass, weeds, strips of bark, small twigs, rootlets, and lined with plant down according to Kaufman (1996). The Alder Flycatcher hunts exclusively from perches with tall shrubs or low trees, either hawking them from the air or gleaning from the foliage (Kaufman 1996, Lowther 1999).

NATURE SERVE GLOBAL HABITAT COMMENTS:

Brushy and scrubby growth, thickets, deciduous forest edge, open second growth, and swamps.

NON-BREEDING: also woodland, but migrants seldom enter tall shady second growth or woodland (Stiles and Skutch 1989). Nests in damp thickets of alder and various shrubs, in bogs, along marshy borders of lakes, and in brush along stream banks, less than 2 m above ground (Harrison 1979).

 
MODELING DESCRIPTION:
Occupied Landcover Map Units:
Code NameDescription NC Natural Heritage Program Equivalent
228 Piedmont Dry-Mesic Oak and Hardwood Forests Primarily oak dominated forests, white oak is often dominant, with co-dominants including . Also represented by sweetgum and tulip poplar dominated forests. Dry Mesic Oak Hickory Forest, Basic Oak Hickory Forest, Dry Oak Hickory Forest
36 Successional Deciduous Forests Regenerating deciduous trees with a shrub stature. Commonly dominated by sweetgum, tulip poplars and maples. No equivalent
521 Spruce/Fir Forest High Elevation Frazer-Fir - Red Spruce, Red Spruce and Red-Spruce-Yellow Birch Forests. Tree densities included here include both woodland to forest density. Highly intermixed with Northern Hardwoods, Grassy Balds, and Shrub Balds. Red Spruce--Fraser Fir Forest, Fraser Fir Forest
524 Shrub Bald Variable phenologies, predominantly evergreen balds with rhododendon and Mountain laurels. Deciduous shrubs including green alder and Alleghany and smooth blackberry are included as well. Red Oak - Chestnut Oak Woodlands may be included in cases where the density of the woodland species is low and the shrub component is dense. Heath Bald
533 Appalachian Swamp Forest Evergreen and deciduous forests with saturated hydrologies. This class may contain a variety of trees species, including hemlock - red maple, pitch pine, and white pine forests. Swamp Forest-Bog Complex, Southern Appalachian Bog, Southern Appalachian Fen
534 Appalachian Wet Shrubland/ Herbaceous Saturated shrubs and herbaceous vegetation. Often mapped as an inclusion in Appalachian Swamp Forest. Southern Appalachian Bog, Southern Appalachian Fen
View Entire Landcover Legend
 
Additional Spatial Constraints:
Exclude all area outside of known range.
Limited to elevation range: greater than 3500 ft.
 
CITATIONS:
Winkler, K. 1994. Divergence in the mitochondrial DNA of EMPIDONAX TRAILLII and E. ALNORUM, with notes on hybridization. Auk 111:710-713.

Bent, A.C. 1942. Life histories of North American flycatchers, larks, swallows, and their allies. U.S. National Museum Bulletin 179. Washington, DC.

Hamel, P. B. 1992. The land manager's guide to the birds of the south. The Nature Conservancy, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 367 pp + several appendices.

Simpson MB Jr. 1992. Birds of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.

Kaufman K. 1996. Lives of North American Birds. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Lowther, P. E. 1999. Alder flycatcher. In Poole A. and Gill F., eds. The birds of North America. No. 446.

Harrison, C. 1978. A field guide to the nests, eggs and nestlings of North American birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.

Harrison, H.H. 1979. A field guide to western birds' nests. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 279 pp.

Keast, A., and E. S. Morton. 1980. Migrant birds in the Neotropics; ecology, distribution, and conservation. Smithsonian Inst. Press, Washington, D.C.

Potter, E. F., J. F. Parnell, and R. P. Teulings. 1980. Birds of the Carolinas. Univ. North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. 408 pp.

Terres, J.K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), Committee on Classification and Nomenclature. 1983. Check-list of North American Birds. Sixth Edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas.

Stiles, F.G., and A.F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Comstock Publ. Associates, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. 511 pp.

Droege, S., and J.R. Sauer. 1990. North American Breeding Bird Survey, annual summary, 1989. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 90(8). 22 pp.

10 March 2005
 
This data was compiled and/or developed by the North Carolina GAP Analysis Project.

For more information please contact them at:
NC-GAP Analysis Project
Dept. of Zoology, NCSU
Campus Box 7617
Raleigh, NC 27695-7617
(919) 513-2853
www.basic.ncsu.edu/ncgap