STATUS: Common.
HABITAT: Prefers brushy sphagnum bogs and open second-growth woodlands. Also occurs in regenerating areas that have been burned or cut, overgrown pastures and fields, woodland edges, and in swales, slashings, and undergrowth of mixed forests, especially those with aspen or birch. Also found in woodlands, but generally on poor sites.
SPECIAL HABITAT REQUIREMENTS: Scattered trees interspersed with brush.
NEST: Conceals nest on the ground in a small depression, sometimes in a sphagnum hummock, often with an overhead cover of ferns or other overhanging vegetation.
FOOD: Forages from the ground to the treetops, gleaning food (chiefly insects) from the trunk, leaves, and branches, and hawking flying insects.
REFERENCES: DeGraff et al. 1980, Griscom and Sprunt 1979, Johnsgard 1979, Lawrence 1948, Petersen in Farrand 1983c.