STATUS: Common in parts of its range, but numbers fluctuate.
HABITAT: In the Southeast, it inhabits forested river bottoms and upland pine woods with an understory of oaks. In other areas, it may inhabit open scrub and woodlands, or tall trees of closed canopy along river flood plains. Throughout the West it breeds in oaks, pinyon-juniper, and less frequently in chaparral.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: An abundant supply of arthropods.
NEST: Places nest saddled on a horizontal limb 4 to 70 feet high (average 25 feet), in a conifer or deciduous tree, but usually in deciduous oaks.
FOOD: Gleans food from the tips of branches, leaf surfaces, and bark; also hawks flying insects from perches. Mostly eats arthropods, principally insects, and some spiders.
REFERENCES: Forbush and May 1955, Root 1967, 1969, Terres 1980.