Swainson's Flycatcher

21 cm

Swainson's Flycatcher primarily consumes insects and fruits. Nestlings are fed dragonflies and berries. Noted for foraging by hover-gleaning to capture prey and occasionally employs aerial hawking. Shows a preference for feeding in mid-strata vegetation and displays frugivorous tendencies in non-breeding areas.

Swainson's Flycatcher inhabits a range of environments, predominantly settling in clearings and wooded areas like cerrado and savannas, as well as scrublands and riparian zones. The species shows a preference for the wooded slopes of tepuis and tropical forest clearings, often occupying canopy levels of subtropical hill forests and the drier, lightly wooded valleys. Swainson's Flycatcher is adaptable and may be found in both fragmented and urbanized habitats, including small isolated forest patches, areas dominated by selected tree species, and in coastal mangrove ecosystems on non-breeding grounds. Additionally, during non-breeding seasons, swainson's Flycatcher is known to frequent both Chaco and rainforest biomes and is present in varying stages of vegetative succession, from intermediate to mature forest regions.