Eastern Wood-Pewee

Overview

Eastern Wood-Pewee: Small flycatcher, gray-olive upperparts, pale gray underparts. Bill is dark except for yellow base of lower mandible. Wings are dark with two white bars. Black legs, feet. Feeds on insects, spiders and berries. Slow fluttering direct flight on shallow wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Eastern Wood-Pewee: Breeds from eastern Great Plains to the Atlantic Ocean, ranging from southern Canada to northern Florida, the Gulf coast and central Texas. Winters in the tropics. Preferred habitats include northern hardwood, pine-oak, oak-hickory, bottomland hardwood, southern pine savannah, and midwestern forests; also found in orchards, parks, roadsides, and suburban areas.

INTERESTING FACTS

The Eastern and Western Wood-Pewees are very difficult to tell apart visually. Their breeding ranges overlap in a very narrow zone in the Great Plains. Despite their similarity, no evidence has been found that the two species interbreed in that area.
One potential cause of their decline is the overpopulation of white-tailed deer in the Eastern forests. In areas with high deer density, the intermediate canopy is disturbed by browsing, affecting the foraging space of the flycatcher.
Though this bird sings throughout the day, listen for its ballads before dawn's light and well after sunset when this activity peaks.
A group of pewees are collectively known as a "dribble" and a "squirt" of pewees.

The Eastern Wood-Pewee has a large range, estimated globally at 4,100,000 square kilometers. It is native to the nations of North America as well as Central America and parts of South America and prefers forest and shrubland ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated to be 6,000,000 individuals and it does not appear to meet population decline criteria that would necessitate inclusion on the IUCN Red List. The current evaluation status of the Eastern Wood-Pewee is Least Concern.