Eastern wood pewee

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Eastern wood pewee
In Central Park, New York, USA
Song recorded in Ontario, Canada

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Tyrannidae
Genus: Contopus
Species:
C. virens
Binomial name
Contopus virens
(Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms

Muscicapa virens Linnaeus, 1766

The eastern wood pewee (Contopus virens) is a small tyrant flycatcher from North America. This bird and the western wood pewee (C. sordidulus) were formerly considered a single species. The two species are virtually identical in appearance, and can be distinguished most easily by their calls.

Taxonomy

In 1760, the French zoologist

monotypic.[7]

Description

South Padre Island, Texas

The eastern wood pewee is 13.5–15 cm (5.3–5.9 in) in length and weighs around 14 g (0.49 oz).

remiges are long, giving the wingtip a slim and very pointed appearance. The upper part of the bill is dark, the lower part is yellowish. The songs are basically a mournful whistled pee-a'wee given in a series, which gave this bird its name, and a "pe-wee" with a rising note at the end.[10]

Similar species

The

parapatric
to the west of the eastern wood pewee and its song—a descending tsee-tsee-tsee-peeer—is entirely different.

The eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) is similar, particularly in the worn plumage after breeding. It always lacks clearly defined wingbars, however, and bobs its tail frequently. It has a shorter primary projection. The eastern phoebe is also present on the breeding grounds by March, while eastern wood pewees do not arrive until very late April and early May.[11] The songs (fee-bee, fee-bee) and calls (chip) are quite different. The least flycatcher (Empidonax minimus) is quite similar to the eastern wood pewee in plumage, but has a bold eye ring and much shorter primary projection, appearing rather blunt-winged. It also has a shorter bill and is smaller overall. The songs (che-bec, che-bec) and calls (a sharp whit) are very different.

  • Eastern wood pewee has two crisp, pale wing bars and long primary projection.
    Eastern wood pewee has two crisp, pale wing bars and long primary projection.
  • Western wood pewee looks like its sister species.
    sister species
    .
  • Eastern phoebe lacks bolder wing bars and has shorter primary projection.
    Eastern phoebe lacks bolder wing bars and has shorter primary projection.
  • Least flycatcher has bold eye-rings and shorter primary projection.
    Least flycatcher has bold eye-rings and shorter primary projection.

Distribution and habitat

Their breeding

insects and other arthropods
. Wood pewees wait on a perch at a middle height in a tree and fly out to catch prey in flight, sometimes hovering to pick it from vegetation.

Eastern wood pewees arrive relatively late on breeding grounds (e.g., 18 May to 5 June in southern Ontario). They are rarely seen on their breeding grounds before the last days of April further south. They migrate south at a more usual time, leaving sometimes in late August but most often in September. Migration times have stayed the same in the last 100 years. They migrate quickly for most of the journey, dispersing and moving at a slower speed when approaching breeding or wintering range. For example, in the Cayman Islands which are offshore the winter quarters, the species is only rarely and briefly encountered, but passes through on its way north as early as mid-late February.[11][12][13]

Behaviour

Breeding

The eastern wood pewee makes an open

grasses, bark, and lichen, attached to a horizontal tree branch with spider webs. Nest sites range in height from 15 to 60 ft (4.6 to 18.3 m), but average around 30 ft (9.1 m). Common nest trees used include oaks (Quercus), pines (Pinus), birches (Betula), and maples (Acer). The female lays almost always three (sometimes two) translucent-white eggs with brown flecking concentrated towards the larger end of the ovate egg. Males are territorial and defend the nesting area aggressively, often fighting with neighbouring conspecifics and even pursue attacks on other species (e.g., least flycatchers, American robins, chipping sparrows, red-eyed vireos, etc.). Males can sometimes be polygynous
, mating with two females, simultaneously.

The eggs hatch in 12–14 days and both parents bring food to the

altricial
nestlings. Nestlings typically fledge 15–17 days after hatching, often ending up on the ground during the first flight out of the nest. The adults will perch on a nearby branch and call out to the nestlings, keeping contact and providing them with food until the young are able to fly to join them.

Conservation status

The eastern wood pewee is common and widespread, and therefore not considered globally threatened by the

IUCN.[1] Its numbers, however, are declining in recent decades, possibly due to the loss of forest habitat in its winter range. It is also possible that the increase of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in its breeding range has led to a change in vegetation and associated invertebrates
in the lower levels of the deciduous forests where the eastern wood pewee breeds.

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22699816A93749255.en
    . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, especes & leurs variétés (in French and Latin). Vol. 2. Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. pp. 368–370.
  3. ^
    hdl:2246/678
    .
  4. ^ Linnaeus, Carl (1766). Systema naturae : per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis (in Latin). Vol. 1, Part 1 (12th ed.). Holmiae (Stockholm): Laurentii Salvii. p. 327.
  5. ^ Jobling, J.A. (2018). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  6. ^ Cabanis, Jean (1855). "Contopus virens Cab". Journal für Ornithologie (in German). 3 (18): 479.
  7. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Tyrant flycatchers". World Bird List Version 8.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  8. ^ Farnsworth, A.; Lebbin, D. (2018). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D. A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Eastern Wood-pewee (Contopus virens)". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  9. ^ "Eastern Wood-Pewee Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology". www.allaboutbirds.org. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  10. S2CID 45095086
    .
  11. ^ a b Ohio Ornithological Society (2004): Annotated Ohio state checklist Archived July 18, 2004, at the Wayback Machine.
  12. Wilson Bull.
    18 (2): 47–60.
  13. ^ Olson, Storrs L.; James, Helen F.; Meister, Charles A. (1981). "Winter field notes and specimen weights of Cayman Island Birds" (PDF). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 101 (3): 339–346. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-27. Retrieved 2009-10-31.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Contopus virens.
Wikispecies has information related to Contopus virens.
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