eWestern Birds
The Quarterly Journal of Western Field Ornithologists
Atypical Willow Flycatcher Nesting Sites in a Recovering Riparian Corridor at Mono Lake, California
Chris McCreedy and Sacha K. Heath
ABSTRACT: Surveys in the 1990s did not find the Willow Flycatcher along Rush Creek, a tributary of Mono Lake, Mono County, California. In 2001 and 2002 we located nine Willow Flycatcher nests along lower Rush Creek, in a riparian corridor currently in its 15th year of long-term rehabilitation after decades of livestock grazing and water diversion for municipal, hydroelectric, and irrigational use. The mated pairs’ habitat differs from that reported for the Willow Flycatcher elsewhere in California. Males selected territories in tall thickets of Woods’ Rose (Rosa woodsii) , and Woods’ Rose was the substrate of all nine nests. In addition, the flycatchers’ territories and nests were located farther from water than reported elsewhere in California, averaging 129 m for nine nests and 86 m for seven territories.
Download—Atypical Willow Flycatcher Nesting Sites in a Recovering Riparian Corridor at Mono Lake, California