Contopus virens
The Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens) is a quintessential voice of eastern North American woodlands, renowned for its melancholic, whistled song. This small passerine, belonging to the tyrant flycatcher family (Tyrannidae), measures 14-17 cm (5.5-6.7 in) in length with a wingspan of 23-28 cm (9-11 in) and weighs 11-14 g (0.4-0.5 oz). Its appearance is rather subdued: dull olive-greenish upperparts, whitish underparts with a grayish wash across the breast resembling an indistinct vest, and ...
Found primarily in deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous forests, open woodlands, and forest edges. It favors mid-story and canopy layers, from sea level up to moderate elevations in mountainous regions.
Their diet consists almost exclusively of flying insects, including flies, mosquitoes, wasps, bees, moths, butterflies, beetles, and grasshoppers. They forage by sallying from a perch to catch prey in flight.
Eastern Wood-Pewees are diurnal birds, active from early morning until dusk, often roosting inconspicuously within dense foliage. Their foraging strategy is classic flycatching: they sally forth from an exposed perch, darting out to snatch flying insects mid-air with agile, looping flights, often...
The Eastern Wood-Pewee breeds widely across eastern and central North America, extending from southern Canada, including Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime provinces, south through the entire eastern United States. Its western breeding limits reach eastern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and th...
Least Concern
- The Eastern Wood-Pewee is often called 'the voice of summer' due to its persistent and melancholic song that fills the quiet, hot afternoons in eastern forests. - Its name, 'Pewee,' is an onomatopoeia derived directly from its distinctive two-note 'pee-a-wee' or three-note 'pee-o-weee' call. - ...