The Alder flycatcher (Empidonax alnorum), known as “Mosquerito de charral” is a 13cm (5”), 12g member of the Tyrannidae family. It is found from C Alaska and N Canada to NE USA; Colombia and Venezuela to N Argentina on winter. Usually appears near ground.
It is almost indistinguishable from Willow Flycatcher, except from the voice. It has a grayish-olive color on the above dull, tinged with greenish on sides of neck and crown; narrow, whitish eye-ring; white wing bars, anterior one is slightly colored buff, and the secondaries are sharpen and white on the edges; throat and lower breast, white; chest olive to dull olive; upper mandible and legs black; sides, flanks and belly pale yellow; mouth-lining orange; lower dull orangish to horn-color. Young: Brighter olive on the above; broader, buffier wing-bars; broad white ending on secondary wings.

The Yellowish Flycatcher, Empidonax flavescens, is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It breeds in highlands from southeastern Mexico south to western Panama.

This species is found in cool mountain forest, especially at the edges and in clearings, and in second growth and bushy pastures. It breeds from 800 m to nearly 2500 m altitude. The deep cup nest is made of plant fibre and mosses, and placed 2–4.5 m high in a crevice in a tree trunk or earth bank. The typical clutch is two or three white eggs, marked with pale rufous speckles. Incubation by the female is 14–15 days to hatching, with another 17 days to fledging.

The Yellowish Flycatcher is 12.5 cm long and weighs 12 g. Its upper parts are olive-green and the underparts are yellow with an ochre tint to the breast. The wings are blackish with two buff wing bars. It has a white eye ring broadening into a small triangle behind the eye. Sexes are similar, but young birds are browner above and paler yellow below. The call is a thin seeep and the dawn song is a rapid repeated seee seee chit.

This species needs to be distinguished from migratory Empidonax species, since several species, including Willow, Alder and Acadian Flycatchers pass through in the autumn. It has a more prominent eye ring than any migrant species, and despite that species’ name, is yellower below than Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

Yellowish Flycatchers are active birds, usually seen alone when not breeding. They eat insects, spiders and some small berries. The prey is gleaned from the foliage, taken in flight in short sallies, or sometimes picked from the ground.

The Mosquerito Cabecinegro (Empidonax atriceps) has a white eye-ring which is broad behind and interrupted above. Lives in Costa Rica and W Panama.

11.5cm (41/2”); 9g; It’s a brownish-olive colored bird; pileum, hindneck, wings and tail blackish; 2 wing bars with pale edges; cheeks dark olive-brown; throat and belly buff; upper mandible black, lower orangish. Young: Head is browner, wings and belly paler, buffer.

The Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans) is a medium sized bird found from the SW USA to NW Argentina.

15.5cm (6”), 21g; mostly black or black-alike; center of belly white; flanks and crissum sooty-gray; two gray wing-bars, secondaries and tertials are grayish-white on the edges; outer webs of outer rectrices edged with white. Young: Mainly dingy brownish-black; belly and wing-bars, dull-brown; the feathers of the back and rump have pale brown fringes.