WOOD PEWEE
Myiochanes virens (Linnæus)
Description.—About the size of an English Sparrow, with upright perching attitude. Adults: Dark grayish olive above, the wings with two rather indistinct whitish wing-bars; underparts white or pale yellowish, washed with grayish on sides of throat and on breast; upper mandible dark; lower mandible yellowish; eyes black. Immature birds: Similar, but the wing-coverts tipped with buffy and underparts more yellowish. Length: 6½ inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A common migrant and summer resident from May 1 to October 1.
Nest.—A shallow cup made of vegetable fibers, small twigs, cocoons, lichens, and moss, saddled on a horizontal branch from 25 to 40 feet from the ground, usually in a shady woodland. Eggs: 3 or 4, creamy white, with a wreath of dark brown spots about larger end.
The Wood Pewee’s plaintive, musical pee-a-wee, pee-wee, the first half ending with an upward inflection, the latter with a distinct falling, is a characteristic bird-note of the summer woodlands. The singer is usually seen high in a tree, not near the ground, as is the Phœbe. It does not have the habit of flicking its tail. A bird of the shadowy woodland, not of the open stream-sides, it will not be confused with any other bird if its song may be heard. In appearance it is much like the other small flycatchers. The song is often almost perfectly imitated by the Starling, so that Pewee songs heard in winter or in unlikely places should be investigated.
THE SMALL FLYCATCHERS
The bird student will find the shy, dull-colored, small flycatchers difficult to identify. All forms of the group found regularly in Pennsylvania, aside from the Phœbe and Pewee, are dull olive-green or grayish above, lighter or whitish below, have a more or less noticeable eye-ring and two noticeable wing-bars. These small flycatchers are so similar in size and color that it is at times almost impossible to distinguish specimens in the hand. But they are reasonably easy to identify in the field, chiefly from their call-notes which are very distinctive, from their habitat which differs considerably, and from the dates upon which they are seen. They are all under 6 inches in length. All of these birds have an erect perching attitude; none of them, strictly speaking, sings a song; all are equipped with broad, flat bills, for capturing insects.
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher Alder Flycatcher
YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER
Empidonax flaviventris (W. M. and S. F. Baird)
The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is a migrant in mid-spring and early autumn, not found during summer, save at one or two high altitudes, where it nests rarely. It is always rather noticeably yellow below and is found in low, thick woodlands, not often far from the ground. The call-note is a nervous tsek, or chuh-bec, its song a querulous tsu-eek, with a rising inflection. In fall immature birds are sometimes exceedingly abundant.