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Breeding Range. (Fig. 104). Common in the wooded deltaic sand area of western Pembina County, in the Pembina Hills, in the Turtle Mountains, in the wooded hills and lake shores of the Devils Lake - Stump Lake area, in the wooded lake shores of Sargent County and southwestern Richland County, in the wooded valleys along the Red, James, and Mouse rivers and their tributaries, and in one sector of the Missouri River valley (between Garrison Dam and the mouths of Apple Creek and Little Heart River); fairly common elsewhere in the Agassiz Lake Plain Region; uncommon and local elsewhere in the Prairie Pothole Region and Southwestern Slope Region.

Breeding Habitat. Characteristic of various types of deciduous forest including floodplain forests along the major streams and upland forests that occur as extensive tracts on some of the more prominent hills and escarpments, as scattered groves on the prairie, or as wooded margins of permanent lakes; also inhabits stands of planted trees including old tree claims and the more mature, multi-row shelterbelts or windbreaks.

Nesting. Probable breeding season: Early June to mid-July. Extreme egg dates (6 nests): June 13 [1873] in Pembina County (Coues 1878) to June 29 [1892] in Rolette County (E. T. Judd).

Three sets of eggs in the Bishop egg collection, Peabody Museum, had been collected from nests that were situated in upright crotches of saplings and small trees at heights of 6, 8, and 10 feet above the ground. According to Coues (1878), the usual site of a nest in the vicinity of Pembina was an upright crotch of a sapling or stout bush, 10 or 12 feet above the ground; one nest, however, was 40 feet above the ground.

The number of eggs in three nests varied as follows: two eggs (1/3 developed) in Rolette County (E. T. Judd); two fresh eggs in Eddy County, and three fresh eggs in Nelson County (Bishop egg collection catalog, Peabody Museum).

Figure 104. Breeding Range of Least Flycatcher.