Plate 129 – Great Crested Flycatcher

John James Audubon considered the Great Crested flycatcher second only to the Eastern kingbird when it came to directing hawks, owls, cats, and other threats away from nests and territories. Audubon noticed Great Crested flycatchers even at odds with one another: “Among themselves these birds have frequent encounters, on which occasions they shew an unrelenting fierceness almost amounting to barbarity. The plucking of a conquered rival is sometimes witnessed.”