From Opus

Contopus cooperi

Photo by Steve Messick
Photographed: Crow Valley Camp Ground, NE Colorado.

[edit] Identification

19 cm. Large-billed and heavy-headed bird, deep olive-brown, with dark sides of breast and flanks separated by white patch down centre of breast. White feather tufts protrude from lower back at base of tail; tail broad and prominently notched.

[edit] Distribution

Alaska, Canada to United States.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Habitat

Boreal spruce and fir forests, usually near openings, burns, ponds, and bogs.

[edit] Behaviour

3 brown-spotted buff eggs are laid in a twig nest lined with lichens, mosses, and grasses, which is placed near the end of a branch among the foliage well up in an evergreen tree.

Diet includes winged insects.

[edit] External Links