Laura Erickson's For the Birds

This tiny flycatcher seems to throw his whole body into his tiny little chebek! songs. They spend only about 8 weeks in the northland each year before retreating back to Mexico and Central America for the rest of their annual cycle. They barely have time to raise their brood of young before migrating south, so they do not molt their feathers until after their late summer migration. It takes them over 3 weeks to travel south, moving an average of 60 to 72 miles per day. One Least Flycatcher banded in Virginia in 1977 was recaptured alive and well in 1985, when it was at least 8 years old.