Advertisement
Fun Facts
Did You Know?
Breeding happens in the desert Southwest and Mexico, far from North Louisiana. The bird nests in tree forks, building a small cup of twigs, grass, and spider silk. The female lays two to three eggs, incubates for about two weeks, and both adults feed the chicks. The breeding biology follows the standard small-flycatcher template without any snakeskin surprises
If This Animal Could Talk...
"Watch closely, respect my space, and let my habitat explain the rest of the story."
The vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) has saturation turned up to a setting that shouldn't exist in a North Louisiana winter field. The male wears brilliant scarlet-red across the entire head, throat, breast, and belly, with a dark brown-to-black mask through the eye and dark brown-to-black upperparts, wings, and tail. The color hits you the way a stoplight hits you: sudden, bright, and leaving no room for debate about what you just saw. Nothing else in a North Louisiana winter field, or any other field in the eastern United States, wears that much red in that arrangement. The bird appears imported. The bird's range map suggests otherwise, barely.
In North Louisiana, the vermilion flycatcher shows up as a rare but regular winter visitor, typically between October and March. The bird breeds in the southwestern United States and Mexico, and individuals that wander east during fall and winter sometimes end up in Louisiana, usually one at a time, usually in open habitat near water, and usually generating a round of excited phone calls among birders who check the rare bird alerts. A vermilion flycatcher in North Louisiana draws a crowd. The bird did not request the crowd. The crowd showed up because the bird is the most visually absurd flycatcher on the continent and decided to spend December in someone's cattle pasture.
A Few More Facts
How they hunt and forage: Insects, caught in the standard flycatcher manner: perch, watch, launch, grab, return. Beetles, flies, grasshoppers, and other small-to-medium insects make up the bulk of the diet. The bird favors low perches near open ground and water edges, which puts the prey within a short launch distance. A vermilion flycatcher working a fence line catches an insect roughly every thirty to sixty seconds during active feeding, which adds up to a substantial daily intake for a bird that weighs half an ounce. Winter visitors in North Louisiana feed in open habitats near water, including pond edges, ditch banks, and pastures with stock tanks. The prey base in winter leans toward whatever insects remain active during the cooler months, which in Louisiana means a fair number. North Louisiana's winters don't shut down the insect population the way a Minnesota winter would, and the vermilion flycatcher takes advantage of the mild season to feed through December and January without visible difficulty.
Live birth or eggs? no
When young are born: See the detailed species sections below.
Photo Gallery
What Is the Vermilion Flycatcher Often Confused With?
The adult male: screaming red from forehead to belly, with a dark mask and dark brown-to-black back, wings, and tail. The red carries a depth and intensity that photographs rarely capture accurately. In person, in direct sunlight, the male vermilion flycatcher appears hand-painted. The color does not fade with season. The color does not dull with wear. The bird carries the same red in December that it carried in June, which means the winter vagrant that shows up in a North Louisiana field brings the full display. Females and immature males wear gray-brown above with streaked whitish underparts and a salmon-to-peach wash on the belly that hints at the red without delivering it. The female vermilion flycatcher was described as "the plain one" by approximately every field guide ever published, which ignores the fact that the peachy belly wash and the delicate streaking make the female one of the more attractive small flycatchers in her own right. The female's appearance just carries the misfortune of standing next to one of the most aggressively red birds in North America.
Drag the handle left and right to compare Vermilion Flycatcher side by side with the species it gets mistaken for most.
Open the visual comparison tool
Vermilion Flycatcher vs. American Redstart
1 of 3
Advertisement
Accessibility
Choose stable, publicly accessible viewing areas and use binoculars or a zoom lens when terrain, water, vegetation, or distance limits close observation.
Advertisement
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Vermilion Flycatcher live in North Louisiana?
Yes. The vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubinus) has saturation turned up to a setting that shouldn't exist in a North Louisiana winter field. Nothing else in a North Louisiana winter field, or any other field in the eastern United States, wears that much red in that arrangement. In North Louisiana, the vermilion flycatcher shows up as a rare but regular winter visitor, typically between October and March
How do you identify Vermilion Flycatcher?
The adult male: screaming red from forehead to belly, with a dark mask and dark brown-to-black back, wings, and tail. The red carries a depth and intensity that photographs rarely capture accurately. In person, in direct sunlight, the male vermilion flycatcher appears hand-painted. The color does not fade with season. The color does not dull with wear. The bird carries the same red in December that it carried in June, which means the winter vagrant that shows up in a North Louisiana field brings the full display. Females and immature males wear gray-brown above with streaked whitish underparts and a salmon-to-peach wash on the belly that hints at the red without delivering it. The female vermilion flycatcher was described as "the plain one" by approximately every field guide ever published, which ignores the fact that the peachy belly wash and the delicate streaking make the female one of the more attractive small flycatchers in her own right. The female's appearance just carries the misfortune of standing next to one of the most aggressively red birds in North America.
What does Vermilion Flycatcher eat?
What's on the Menu
Insects, caught in the standard flycatcher manner: perch, watch, launch, grab, return. Beetles, flies, grasshoppers, and other small-to-medium insects make up the bulk of the diet. The bird favors low perches near open ground and water edges, which puts the prey within a short launch distance. A vermilion flycatcher working a fence line catches an insect roughly every thirty to sixty seconds during active feeding, which adds up to a substantial daily intake for a bird that weighs half an ounce.
Winter visitors in North Louisiana feed in open habitats near water, including pond edges, ditch banks, and pastures with stock tanks. The prey base in winter leans toward whatever insects remain active during the cooler months, which in Louisiana means a fair number. North Louisiana's winters don't shut down the insect population the way a Minnesota winter would, and the vermilion flycatcher takes advantage of the mild season to feed through December and January without visible difficulty.
Is Vermilion Flycatcher dangerous to people?
Direct danger is low, but flies associated with waste or carrion can carry microbes. Avoid handling them and keep food, wounds, and living spaces sanitary
