Western wood pewee

Western wood pewee
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Contopus
Species:	C. sordidulus
Binomial name
Contopus sordidulus Sclater, PL, 1859
Breeding   Migration   Nonbreeding

The western wood pewee (Contopus sordidulus) is a small tyrant flycatcher. Adults are gray-olive on the upperparts^[2] with light underparts, washed with olive on the breast. They have two wing bars and a dark bill with yellow at the base of the lower mandible. This bird is very similar in appearance to the eastern wood pewee; the two birds were formerly considered to be one species. The call of C. sordidulus is a loud buzzy peeer; the song consists of three rapid descending tsees ending with a descending peeer.

Description

Measurements:^[3]

• Length: 5.5–6.3 in (14–16 cm)
• Weight: 0.4–0.5 oz (11–14 g)
• Wingspan: 10.2 in (26 cm)

Habitat and ecology

Their breeding habitat is open wooded areas in western North America. These birds migrate to South America at the end of summer. The female lays two or three eggs in an open cup nest on a horizontal tree branch or within a tree cavity; California black oak forests are examples of suitable nesting habitat for this species of bird.^[4] Both parents feed the young.

Behavior

They often wait on a perch at a middle height in a tree and fly out to catch insects in flight (hawking), and will also hover to pluck insects from vegetation (gleaning).

References

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Western Wood-pewee Species Account
• C. Michael Hogan (2008) Quercus kelloggii, Globaltwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg

Line notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Contopus sordidulus.