Western Wood-Pewee

Contopus sordidulus

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family TYRANNIDAE - Subfamily Fluvicolinae

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1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A medium-sized, drab flycatcher, the Western Wood-Pewee is a common breeder in open forests and riparian zones across the West.

Cool Facts

• The Eastern and Western wood-pewees are very difficult to tell apart visually. Their breeding ranges overlap only in a very narrow zone in the Great Plains. Despite their similarity, no evidence has ever been found that the two species interbreed in that area.
• Because of the difficulty of separating Eastern from Western wood-pewees, and because some records of ?wintering? pewees might refer to migrants, the exact wintering range of the Western Wood-Pewee is not known precisely.

• The Western Wood-Pewee makes a clapping noise with its bill while chasing and attacking intruders in nest defense.

Description

• Size: 14-16 cm (6-6 in)
• Wingspan: 26 cm (10 in)
• Weight: 11-14 g (0.39-0.49 ounces)

• Medium-sized flycatcher.
• Grayish olive above.
• Pale below, with darker wash on breast and sides.
• Whitish wingbars.
• No eyering or only a faint one.

• Upright posture.
• Flycatches from perches and returns to same perch.
• Slight crest on head.
• Dirty smudging under tail.
• Dark bill with pale base to lower mandible.
• Eyes dark brown.
• Legs and feet blackish.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Juvenile similar to adult, but slightly darker and wingbars buffier.

Similar Species

• Not safely distinguishable from Eastern Wood-Pewee by sight, only by song. Western has a harsh, buzzy "peer" instead of the slurred whistled "pee-ah-wee" of the Eastern.
• Olive-sided Flycatcher has more indistinct wingbars, and larger and darker patches on the side of the breast that contrast strongly with a white center; also occasionally shows white tufts on the sides of the rump.
• Distinguished from Empidonax flycatchers by weak, broken eyering and dirty smudging under tail.
• Greater Pewee is larger, has more uniformly colored underparts, a proportionately larger bill, which is bright pinkish orange below, and a thin, pointed crest.

Sound

Song a harsh, burry "pee-eer," descending in pitch. Call a burry "bzew."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from eastern Alaska to western Manitoba, southward to Mexico and Central America.

Winter Range

Winter range not well known, but appears to be from Costa Rica southward into northwestern South America.

Habitat

Breeds in open woodlands, along forest edges, and in riparian woodlands. Winters in mature tropical forest.

Food

Flying insects, especially flies, ants, bees, wasps, beetles, moths, and bugs.

Behavior

Foraging

Flies out from perch in middle part of understory to catch a flying insect and then returns to the same perch.

Reproduction

Nest Type

A shallow cup of woven grass bound together with spider webs and covered on outside with moss, bud scales, or insect puparia. Lined with hair or fine grass. Placed in fork of horizontal branch of tree.

Egg Description

Creamy white, wreathed with brown blotches and spots at widest point.

Clutch Size

Usually 3-4 eggs. Range: 1-5.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and with some whitish down.

Conservation Status

Considered common, but experiencing a slow, steady decline throughout most of range. At risk from destruction of tropical forest wintering grounds.

Other Names

Pioui de l?Ouest (French)
Pibí occidental (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Bemis, C., and J. D. Rising. 1999. Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus). In The Birds of North America, No. 451 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.