For many birders in the ABA Area, fall is synonymous with vagrant tyrant flycatcher season. There are few places this association is stronger than Florida, a state which has tallied 24 species of non-resident tyrannids between the months of September and November—more than anywhere else east of the Mississippi River. Yet even by Florida standards, the fall of 2025 proved exceptional: It produced two Small-billed Elaenias (ABA Code 5), a Variegated Flycatcher (Code 4), and a remarkable three Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers, all on top of the state’s near-annual assortment of more expected wayward flycatcher species.
Vagrant season kicked off early and auspiciously when Oscar Johnson discovered the state’s first and the ABA Area’s fifth Small-billed Elaenia on 31 Aug in a small botanical garden on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University in Lee County. Johnson’s photographs captured key field marks that eliminated similar species in the notoriously difficult-to-identify genus Elaenia; these included the bird’s smoothly rounded head and the white tips to its upper lesser wing coverts; these tips form a “third wingbar,” which apparentlyly eliminates White-crested Elaenia.
Just two weeks after the elaenia excitement, on 17 Sep, Carl Edwards located another long-distance austral vagrant of South American origin: Florida’s fourth and the ABA Area’s eleventh Variegated Flycatcher at Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Palm Beach Co. Unlike the elaenia, whose brief, two-day stay and frustrating elusiveness left many chasers empty-handed, the Variegated Flycatcher entertained throngs of onlookers during its five-day layover by showing fidelity to a handful of exposed perches along an open dike road.
The South American parade didn’t end there. On 11 Oct, Susan Fears posted images of an unusual flycatcher she photographed at St. Georges Island State Park in Franklin Co to the American Birding Association’s “What’s This Bird?” Facebook group; it turned out to be yet another Small-billed Elaenia—the state’s second and the ABA Area’s sixth. Even more elusive than the state’s first Small-billed Elaenia from just a month earlier, the Franklin Co bird was a one-day wonder that never reappeared for its pursuers.
Amid the flurry of austral vagrants this fall, birders found an exceptional three Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers at the southern tip of Florida in Sep and Oct. The first of these was discovered by Mariah Hryniewich at Curry Hammock State Park in Monroe Co on 20 Sep; it was followed shortly thereafter by another found by Samantha Andescavage deep in Collier Co’s Big Cypress National Preserve on 28 Sep. While neither of these individuals was seen after its initial discovery, as is characteristic for vagrants to Florida of this species, the third individual, found on 22 Oct at A. D. Barnes Park in Miami-Dade Co, bucked the trend by continuing for an impressive five days, making it among the longest-staying of the 25+ Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers recorded in the state.
So what were all of these flycatchers doing thousands of kilometers from their more typical southern haunts? Migrant species of tyrant flycatcher are well known for extralimital occurrences; multiple species turn up in small numbers across the ABA Area each fall. Most of these are long-distance migrants with large populations—two species-level traits that often result in higher vagrancy rates via misorientation, a navigational error that causes some birds to deviate from their species’ typical migration routes. Perhaps the best-known manifestation of this phenomenon is “reverse migration”, in which a bird orients 180 degrees opposite its normal migration path yet travels a “normal” distance. Thus, a Small-billed Elaenia or Variegated Flycatcher that should be migrating 2,800 mi. (4,500 km) on a 160-degree south-southeast bearing from its wintering grounds in northern Colombia to its austral breeding grounds in Uruguay instead flies 2,800 mi. in the exact opposite direction: a 340-degree north-northwest bearing that lands it in the northern U.S. (Figures 1 & 2). Relatedly, some vagrants’ paths may chart a mirrored vector across an east–west axis centered on their point of origin (e.g., a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher hatched in Guatemala that ends up 2,000 mi. (3,300 km) away in coastal New England on a 30-degree north-northeast bearing rather than joining the rest of its conspecifics 2,000 mi. away in eastern Peru on a 150-degree south-southeast bearing; see Figure 3).
Figure 1. Potential reverse migration of Variegated Flycatcher from its northern South American wintering grounds into eastern North America during its austral spring migration. Only fall records from the eastern ABA Area are shown. Distributional information adapted from eBird data.
Figure 2. Potential reverse migration of Small-billed Elaenia from its northern South American wintering grounds into eastern North America during its austral spring migration. Only fall records from the eastern ABA Area are shown. Distributional information adapted from eBird data.
Figure 3. Potential latitudinal mirror image migration of Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher from primarily Middle American breeding grounds into the eastern ABA Area during boreal fall migration. Only fall records from the eastern ABA Area are shown. Distributional information adapted from eBird data.
Although seemingly unpredictable, misorientation is generally non-random, both in its underlying mechanisms and observable outcomes, and examining the temporal and spatial distribution of vagrant neotropical tyrannids in the ABA Area each fall reveals several consistent patterns. Among the most notable of these is a sharp bifurcation of vagrant reports between the Gulf Coast states and the upper Midwest, southeastern Canada, and New England, with very few records anywhere in between. Since most misorienting flycatchers lack an overwater component to their normal migrations, a long, non-stop flight across the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico may prove especially taxing and force them to make landfall along the first coastline they reach. Florida is particularly well-positioned to catch these vagrants. The state lies directly on the mirrored vector of multiple species’ typical migratory routes, and because it protrudes well south of the continental landmass, peninsular Florida is the first land that many vagrants see after long ocean crossings. Moreover, Florida’s large and active birding community and ever-dwindling green spaces undoubtedly contribute to higher detection of vagrant flycatchers that would otherwise quietly slip away to their final destinations in the northern U.S. and southern Canada.
When exactly the next misoriented neotropical flycatcher will surface in the ABA Area is anyone’s guess. But if history is any guide, the discovery of one vagrant often signals the presence of others of its kind. Two of the now six ABA Area records of Small-billed Elaenia both occurred in the fall of 2021, just as another two were logged this season. Similarly, Florida’s trio of Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers in 2025 echoed five birds in the fall of 2013, three in the fall of 2014, and four in the fall of 2015. Maybe this temporal clustering is due to high reproductive success in the preceding breeding season, or perhaps overlooked weather phenomena help drift a higher number of vagrants that otherwise were bound for the middle of the Atlantic westward into Florida. Whatever the cause, it’s clear that in a state where seemingly anything can turn up, Florida birders can surely expect that 2025’s vagrant flycatcher bonanza won’t be the last.
References
Clements, Nolan M., and James R. Tietz. 2023. “First Record of the Small‑billed Elaenia (Elaenia parvirostris) for Western North America.” Western Birds. 54(3): 208–214.
Howell, Steve N. G., Ian Lewington, and Will Russell. 2014. Rare Birds of North America. Princeton University Press.
Kratter, A. W. 2012. “Thirtieth Report of the Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee (FOSRC).” Florida Field Naturalist. 40: 208–214.
McCaskie, Guy, and Michel A. Patten A. 1994. “Status of the Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana) in the United States and Canada.” Western Birds. 25(3). 113–127.
Mlodinow, Steven G., and David S. Irons. 2009. “First Record of the Variegated Flycatcher for Western North America.” Western Birds. 40: 47–50.
Recommended citation: Johnson, Will. 2025. Neotropical Flycatchers in Florida in Fall 2025. North American Birds. 77(1).
For many birders in the ABA Area, fall is synonymous with vagrant tyrant flycatcher season. There are few places this association is stronger than Florida, a state which has tallied 24 species of non-resident tyrannids between the months of September and November—more than anywhere else east of the Mississippi River. Yet even by Florida standards, the fall of 2025 proved exceptional: It produced two Small-billed Elaenias (ABA Code 5), a Variegated Flycatcher (Code 4), and a remarkable three Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers, all on top of the state’s near-annual assortment of more expected wayward flycatcher species.
Vagrant season kicked off early and auspiciously when Oscar Johnson discovered the state’s first and the ABA Area’s fifth Small-billed Elaenia on 31 Aug in a small botanical garden on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University in Lee County. Johnson’s photographs captured key field marks that eliminated similar species in the notoriously difficult-to-identify genus Elaenia; these included the bird’s smoothly rounded head and the white tips to its upper lesser wing coverts; these tips form a “third wingbar,” which apparentlyly eliminates White-crested Elaenia.
Just two weeks after the elaenia excitement, on 17 Sep, Carl Edwards located another long-distance austral vagrant of South American origin: Florida’s fourth and the ABA Area’s eleventh Variegated Flycatcher at Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Palm Beach Co. Unlike the elaenia, whose brief, two-day stay and frustrating elusiveness left many chasers empty-handed, the Variegated Flycatcher entertained throngs of onlookers during its five-day layover by showing fidelity to a handful of exposed perches along an open dike road.
The South American parade didn’t end there. On 11 Oct, Susan Fears posted images of an unusual flycatcher she photographed at St. Georges Island State Park in Franklin Co to the American Birding Association’s “What’s This Bird?” Facebook group; it turned out to be yet another Small-billed Elaenia—the state’s second and the ABA Area’s sixth. Even more elusive than the state’s first Small-billed Elaenia from just a month earlier, the Franklin Co bird was a one-day wonder that never reappeared for its pursuers.
Amid the flurry of austral vagrants this fall, birders found an exceptional three Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers at the southern tip of Florida in Sep and Oct. The first of these was discovered by Mariah Hryniewich at Curry Hammock State Park in Monroe Co on 20 Sep; it was followed shortly thereafter by another found by Samantha Andescavage deep in Collier Co’s Big Cypress National Preserve on 28 Sep. While neither of these individuals was seen after its initial discovery, as is characteristic for vagrants to Florida of this species, the third individual, found on 22 Oct at A. D. Barnes Park in Miami-Dade Co, bucked the trend by continuing for an impressive five days, making it among the longest-staying of the 25+ Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers recorded in the state.
So what were all of these flycatchers doing thousands of kilometers from their more typical southern haunts? Migrant species of tyrant flycatcher are well known for extralimital occurrences; multiple species turn up in small numbers across the ABA Area each fall. Most of these are long-distance migrants with large populations—two species-level traits that often result in higher vagrancy rates via misorientation, a navigational error that causes some birds to deviate from their species’ typical migration routes. Perhaps the best-known manifestation of this phenomenon is “reverse migration”, in which a bird orients 180 degrees opposite its normal migration path yet travels a “normal” distance. Thus, a Small-billed Elaenia or Variegated Flycatcher that should be migrating 2,800 mi. (4,500 km) on a 160-degree south-southeast bearing from its wintering grounds in northern Colombia to its austral breeding grounds in Uruguay instead flies 2,800 mi. in the exact opposite direction: a 340-degree north-northwest bearing that lands it in the northern U.S. (Figures 1 & 2). Relatedly, some vagrants’ paths may chart a mirrored vector across an east–west axis centered on their point of origin (e.g., a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher hatched in Guatemala that ends up 2,000 mi. (3,300 km) away in coastal New England on a 30-degree north-northeast bearing rather than joining the rest of its conspecifics 2,000 mi. away in eastern Peru on a 150-degree south-southeast bearing; see Figure 3).
Figure 1. Potential reverse migration of Variegated Flycatcher from its northern South American wintering grounds into eastern North America during its austral spring migration. Only fall records from the eastern ABA Area are shown. Distributional information adapted from eBird data.
Figure 2. Potential reverse migration of Small-billed Elaenia from its northern South American wintering grounds into eastern North America during its austral spring migration. Only fall records from the eastern ABA Area are shown. Distributional information adapted from eBird data.
Figure 3. Potential latitudinal mirror image migration of Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher from primarily Middle American breeding grounds into the eastern ABA Area during boreal fall migration. Only fall records from the eastern ABA Area are shown. Distributional information adapted from eBird data.
Although seemingly unpredictable, misorientation is generally non-random, both in its underlying mechanisms and observable outcomes, and examining the temporal and spatial distribution of vagrant neotropical tyrannids in the ABA Area each fall reveals several consistent patterns. Among the most notable of these is a sharp bifurcation of vagrant reports between the Gulf Coast states and the upper Midwest, southeastern Canada, and New England, with very few records anywhere in between. Since most misorienting flycatchers lack an overwater component to their normal migrations, a long, non-stop flight across the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico may prove especially taxing and force them to make landfall along the first coastline they reach. Florida is particularly well-positioned to catch these vagrants. The state lies directly on the mirrored vector of multiple species’ typical migratory routes, and because it protrudes well south of the continental landmass, peninsular Florida is the first land that many vagrants see after long ocean crossings. Moreover, Florida’s large and active birding community and ever-dwindling green spaces undoubtedly contribute to higher detection of vagrant flycatchers that would otherwise quietly slip away to their final destinations in the northern U.S. and southern Canada.
When exactly the next misoriented neotropical flycatcher will surface in the ABA Area is anyone’s guess. But if history is any guide, the discovery of one vagrant often signals the presence of others of its kind. Two of the now six ABA Area records of Small-billed Elaenia both occurred in the fall of 2021, just as another two were logged this season. Similarly, Florida’s trio of Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers in 2025 echoed five birds in the fall of 2013, three in the fall of 2014, and four in the fall of 2015. Maybe this temporal clustering is due to high reproductive success in the preceding breeding season, or perhaps overlooked weather phenomena help drift a higher number of vagrants that otherwise were bound for the middle of the Atlantic westward into Florida. Whatever the cause, it’s clear that in a state where seemingly anything can turn up, Florida birders can surely expect that 2025’s vagrant flycatcher bonanza won’t be the last.
References
Clements, Nolan M., and James R. Tietz. 2023. “First Record of the Small‑billed Elaenia (Elaenia parvirostris) for Western North America.” Western Birds. 54(3): 208–214.
Howell, Steve N. G., Ian Lewington, and Will Russell. 2014. Rare Birds of North America. Princeton University Press.
Kratter, A. W. 2012. “Thirtieth Report of the Florida Ornithological Society Records Committee (FOSRC).” Florida Field Naturalist. 40: 208–214.
McCaskie, Guy, and Michel A. Patten A. 1994. “Status of the Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana) in the United States and Canada.” Western Birds. 25(3). 113–127.
Mlodinow, Steven G., and David S. Irons. 2009. “First Record of the Variegated Flycatcher for Western North America.” Western Birds. 40: 47–50.
Recommended citation: Johnson, Will. 2025. Neotropical Flycatchers in Florida in Fall 2025. North American Birds. 77(1).
Will Johnson is a regional eBird reviewer, environmental lecturer, and artist based in Vero Beach, Florida. He is particularly interested in using weather and biogeography to infer migration and vagrancy patterns in his home state. Outside of birding, Will works in nature-based climate change mitigation and enjoys fishing, diving, and drawing.
