Eastern Wood-Pewee

Eastern Wood Pewee perching on a log.
Contopus virens
Description
- The eastern wood-pewee is a medium-sized flycatcher growing to about 15 cm long.
- Like all pewees, they stand notably upright; have short legs, and a crown which gives their head a triangular appearance.
- Long wings and tails characterize them from other similar species.
- Adult males and females are similar in appearance with greyish-olive on their upper body, pale colouration on their throat and belly, and thin, pale bars on their wings.
- The underside of the bill is mostly yellow-orange, with the exception of some juveniles.
- Largely an inconspicuous bird, the eastern wood-pewee will grab your attention when it opens its bill and gives its unmistakable slurred call: pee-a-wee!
Food
- Mostly small, flying insects and therefore will seldom visit bird feeders.
- When multiple species of flycatchers (birds that eat flying insects) live in the same forest, they each find their niche. The eastern wood-pewee tends to forage higher in the trees than some flycatchers, but lower than others.
- Its diet includes flies, bugs, butterflies, moths, bees, wasps, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, stoneflies, and mayflies.
- The pewee also eats small amounts of vegetable matter, including the berries and seeds of dogwood, blueberry, raspberry, and poison ivy.
Habits and Reproduction
- The eastern wood-pewee lays 2-4 white or cream coloured eggs in a small nest made from wool, bark strips, twigs, roots, mosses, pine needles, or leaves which are covered with lichen.
- Nests are so well camouflaged they often look like a knot on a branch.
- The breeding ranges of the eastern and western wood-pewee overlap in a small region in the American Great Plains, but the two species do not appear to interbreed.
Habitat
- Often found perched on dead branches in the mid-canopy where it searches for flying insects.
- Lives beside forest clearings and edges of deciduous and mixed forests. It is most abundant in intermediate-age mature forest stands with little understory vegetation.
Threats
- The eastern wood-pewee has experienced population declines over the past 40 years in Canada and the United States.
- Contributing factors to the population declines of the eastern wood-pewee may include:
- habitat loss and degrading due to urban development and/or changes in forest management
- reductions in the availability of their food source (flying insects)
- loss of eggs and fledglings due to increasing populations of predator species (ex. blue jays, red squirrels)
- changes to forest composition from white-tailed deer over-browsing, which may reduce the number of insects available to eat
- other threats during migration and in their wintering habitat in South America
Conservation Actions
- Shade grown coffee presents a tremendous opportunity for both conservation and economic gain for South American farmers. Coffee grown under the forest canopy can provide our migratory birds with a safe refuge. Please purchase shade grown, preferably organic coffee.
- Choose Forest Stewardship Council certified (FSC) wood products.
- If possible, leave dead wood standing on your property to attract insects.
Range Map
