Alder Flycatcher Empidonax alnorum

The Alder Flycatcher, an Almanac

• The Alder Flycatcher is counted, in these parts, an ill bird to cross.
• Put no Alder Flycatcher on a weathervane; it tells the truth, and no one thanks it for that.
• They say a nest of it under the eaves keeps the house from company you did not ask for.
• Some reckon it will not cross a coffin path for love nor money.
• The naturalist Sturge classed it among the the miasmatic orders, noting that the creature navigates chiefly by the action of the moon upon its nervous fluid.

Folklore, invented on the spot — not to be believed.