Hanging with a pewee, an Eastern Wood-Pewee
Sometimes you’ll find birds foraging on the ground or through brush. Other times you’ll find them higher up in the trees, as with this juvenile Eastern Wood-Pewee. Apparently wood-pewees do tend to forage from higher perches with one study finding an average perch height of 35 feet. They’ll often favor a perch, flying off to catch insects then returning to the same perch.
We can tell this one is a juvenile by the coloration of its wing bars. As an adult they’ll take on a whiter color, but as juveniles they’re a paler brown. Another difference can be their bills, specifically the lower mandible. Adults usually have a pale orange lower mandible and a black upper mandible. Juveniles, though, can have completely dark bills without any visible orange, as we see with this one.
A juvenile Eastern Wood-Pewee resting on a perch up in a tree
This particular juvenile was observed in early July in a refuge that has a mix of wetlands areas, open water, wooded areas, and open fields. So it had plenty of habitat to explore, which is good as its breeding territory is typically from 2 to 6 acres. They are summer residents to most of the eastern United States, extending a short ways into southern Canada, migrating in during the spring migration to breed and nest, and out again during the fall migration. There is a similar species in the west, the Western Wood-Pewee.
Pewees are a type of flycatcher, and as their name suggests, they hunt flying insects. All flycatchers are fun to watch when hunting. They might perch and watch, then dart out into the air, catch an insect in flight, and return to their perch. They will also eat various berries or small tree fruits.
Resources
I used the following books to research the Eastern Wood-Pewee. Links are to Bookshop.org, where a percentage of your purchase goes to support local, independent bookstores, and to Amazon. I do not have a relationship with Bookshop.org, but have purchased from them. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America
National Geographic Complete Birds of North America
Wildlife of Virginia and Maryland and Washington, DC
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