Myiarchus crinitus
Silhouette: Jason Dilworth · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The great crested flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) is a large insect-eating bird of the tyrant flycatcher family. It is the most widespread member of the genus Myiarchus in North America, and is found over most of the eastern and mid-western portions of the continent. It dwells mostly in the treetops and rarely is found on the ground.
The great crested flycatcher was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus crinitus. The specific epithet crinitus is Latin and means "long-haired" (from crinis meaning "hair") Linnaeus based his account on the "crested fly-catcher" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Linnaeus specified the type locality as "America" but this was restricted to South Carolina by Outram Bangs in 1898. It is now one of 22 species placed in the genus Myiarchus that was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1844. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
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| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 9 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Great Crested Flycatcher sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 357 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 79th most-seen of the 173 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Great Crested Flycatcher in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August to March, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Great Crested Flycatcher sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
32nd of 57
Of the 57 parks where we can rate Great Crested Flycatcher sightings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranks 32nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Big Cypress National Preserve (United States, about 40%), Point Pelee National Park (Canada, about 40%) and Everglades National Park (United States, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Great Crested Flycatcher that you can see in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Eastern Phoebe (about 50%), Eastern Wood-Pewee (about 20%) and Acadian Flycatcher (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Great Crested Flycatcher is recorded against all the birds logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (357 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
