STATUS: Fairly common.
HABITAT: Occurs in mountains up to 10,000 feet near the Mexico border, where it inhabits pine and pine-oak forests with an undergrowth of bushes. Also occurs in sycamore groves along mountain canyons.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Tall trees for feeding perches and for nesting.
NEST: Locates nest on a horizontal fork 10 to 40 feet above the ground in a pine, sycamore, spruce, maple, oak, or other tall tree. Vigorously defends nest against jays, hawks, squirrels, and snakes.
FOOD: Hawks insects from a perch high up in a tall tree. (There are no detailed reports of its food habits.)
REFERENCES: Bent 1942, Harrison 1979, Phillips et al. 1964, Terres 1980.