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Eastern Wood-Pewee
The Eastern Wood-Pewee, Contopus virens, is a small Tyrant flycatcher. This bird and the Western Wood-Pewee were formerly considered to be a single species. The two species are virtually identical in appearance, and can be distinguished most easily by their calls.
Adults are grey-olive on the upperparts with light underparts, washed with olive on the breast. They have two wing bars; the upper part of the bill is dark, the lower part is yellowish.
Their breeding habitat is deciduous or mixed woods in eastern North America. They make an open cup nest on a horizontal tree branch.
These birds migrate to Central America and in the Andes region of northern South America, usually leaving at the end of summer.
They wait on a perch at a middle height in a tree and fly out to catch insects in flight, sometimes hovering to pick insects from vegetation.
The call is a mournful whistled pee-a-wee, which gave this bird its name.
Although still common and widespread, the numbers of this bird are declining, possibly due to the loss of forest habitat in its winter range. It is also possible that the increase of White-tailed Deer in its breeding range has led to a decrease in vegetation, and associated insect food, in the lower levels of the deciudous forests where the Pewee breeds.
External links
* USGS
* Cornell University--All About Birds
* Wood Pewee by John Audubon
{{Commons|Contopus virens}}