Least Flycatcher (Empidonax Minimus) Flycatcher Family
Called also: CHEBEC

Length -- 5 to 5.5 inches. About an inch smaller than the English sparrow. Male -- Gray or olive-gray above, paler on wings and lower part of back, and a more distinct olive-green on head. Underneath grayish white, sometimes faintly suffused with pale yellow. wings have whitish bars. White eye-ring. Lower half of bill horn color. Female is slightly more yellowish underneath. Range -- Eastern North America, from tropics northward to Quebec, Migrations -- May. September. Common summer resident.

This, the smallest member of its family, takes the place of the more southerly Acadian flycatcher, throughout New England and the region of the Great Lakes. But, unlike his Southern relative, he prefers orchards and gardens close to our homes for his hunting grounds rather than the wet recesses of the forests. Che-bec, che-bec, the diminutive olive-pated gray sprite calls out from the orchard between his aerial sallies after the passing insects that have been attracted by the decaying fruit, and chebec is the name by which many New Englanders know him.