Flycatchers are returning to California this Pacific Migration. Willow Flycatchers are starting to make an appearance in Southern California and in the next few weeks will be seen more readily in the rest of the state; as illustrated in the below eBird GIF.

A study conducted at the University of Massachusetts discovered that Willow Flycatchers and Alder Flycatchers have an innate knowledge of their song. University of Massachusetts researchers tutored captive Flycatchers with recorded songs.

"I found no similarity of song characters of wild songs, no evidence of learning from a tutor tape, nor any similarity of song characters among kin. The vocal development of the suboscine flycatchers is strikingly different from that of typical oscines, where vocal learning is the rule," wrote Donald E. Kroodsma in his paper on the study.

To read the full article, visit http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4086218?uid=3739256&uid=2&uid=4&sid=56160172953.

(Photo by Dave Menke/USFWS)