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Olive-sided Flycatcher
If you drink coffee, you can help these birds!
© Tom Munson
What a comfort it would be if every bird song were as easy to recognize — and remember — as that of this Olive-sided Flycatcher. Some people think it sounds like "quick-THREE-beers" or "what PEEVES you." Do you drink coffee? Then you can help Olive-sided Flycatchers, when you choose to drink shade-grown coffee. It encourages coffee growers to keep the trees that migratory songbirds need to survive on their wintering grounds.
BirdNote®
Olive-sided Flycatcher - A Song to Remember
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Olive-sided Flycatcher song]
What a comfort it would be to legions of birders if every bird song were as easy to recognize – and remember – as that of the Olive-sided Flycatcher.
[Olive-sided Flycatcher song]
Take a walk in the mountains of the North or West in summer, and you’re likely to hear the Olive-sided Flycatcher’s blithely whistled three-note song. Bird ID guides have tried to capture its pattern and quality with such catchphrases as “quick-three-beers” or “what peeves you.”
[Olive-sided Flycatcher song]
The bird’s behavior also makes it easy to get to know. It perches conspicuously, bolt upright, high in the tops of dead trees. Then it sallies out to snatch flying insects. [A fly on the fly!] The Olive-sided Flycatcher is gray with a peaked crown and dark vest, and it stands about eight inches tall. And though it favors the edges of mountain forests, this migratory flycatcher also nests in small numbers in greenbelts and parks.
[Olive-sided Flycatcher song]
It was once a common breeder in western forests, but the bird’s numbers have declined in recent decades. The reasons are unclear, but loss of trees where it winters, some 4,000 miles away in South America, may be a leading cause.
[Olive-sided Flycatcher song]
Do you drink coffee? You can help Olive-sided Flycatchers when you choose to drink shade-grown coffee.
For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Call [126484] recorded by T.G. Sander. Fly recorded by G.F. Budney.
BirdNote's theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2014 BirdNote June 2014/2026
Narrator: Mary McCann
ID# OSFL-01b-2016-06-01 OSFL-01b
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Mary McCann
NarratorSights & Sounds
