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 (Saskatchewan to the Maritime Provinces) to northern Florida, the Gulf coast and central Texas. Spends 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.

Breeding and Nesting

Eastern Wood-Pewee: Two to four white eggs with brown and purple blotches are laid in a shallow cup of woven grass, weeds, wool, bark strips, twigs, roots, mosses, pine needles, and leaves camouflaged with spider webs and lichens. Nest is built on a horizontal limb well out from trunk, frequently on a dead twig of a living tree. Incubation ranges from 12 to 13 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Eastern Wood-Pewee: Feeds on small flying insects, including flies, bees, butterflies, wasps, and beetles. Sallies out from an exposed perch to capture prey, usually returning to the same perch; occasionally takes insects from the ground or vegetation.

Readily Eats

Meal Worms

Vocalization

Eastern Wood-Pewee: Song is a slurred "pee-ah-wee." Call is a rapid, shrill "pe-e-e-e-e-e", usually made when disturbed at the nest.

Similar Species

Eastern Wood-Pewee: Distinguished from Western Wood-Pewee by voice where ranges overlap.