Western Wood-Pewee

The Western Wood-Pewee is a plain, medium-sized flycatcher of open western woodlands, showing dusky grayish-olive upperparts, a subtly darker vested breast, and indistinct wing bars, with no eye-ring bold enough to be a useful field mark. Its unremarkable plumage makes voice the most reliable way to identify it, particularly its harsh, descending, nasal call.

Often seen perched upright and motionless on a bare branch at the edge of a clearing before sallying out after insects, this species is a common summer breeder in coniferous and mixed forests throughout much of the western United States and Canada.

Key Field Marks

• Dusky grayish-olive upperparts with a darker, vested appearance across the breast
• Indistinct, dingy wing bars and no obvious eye-ring
• Relatively long wings extending well past the tail base at rest
• Upright posture on an exposed perch, often at the top of a dead branch

Similar Species

• Eastern Wood-Pewee is nearly identical in appearance; the two are best separated by range and voice, with limited range overlap in the Great Plains.
• Empidonax flycatchers are generally smaller with more prominent eye-rings and bolder wing bars.
• Its harsh, burry peeer call is diagnostic and quite different from the clear, whistled song of the Eastern Wood-Pewee.

Western Wood-Pewees breed across a wide range of wooded habitats in western North America, from Alaska south through the western United States into Mexico and Central America, favoring open coniferous and mixed forests, forest edges, and riparian woodlands with clearings for foraging.

The species migrates to winter in South America, primarily in the Andean foothills and Amazon basin.

Voice

Gives a harsh, nasal, slightly descending peeer or pee-yee call, quite different from the clear whistle of the Eastern Wood-Pewee, and repeats it persistently through the day.

Feeding

Sallies from an exposed perch to catch flying insects in mid-air, typically returning to the same or a nearby perch after each foray, a hunting style known as "hawking."

Nesting

Builds a shallow, well-camouflaged cup nest of grass and plant fibers, saddled on a horizontal branch and often decorated with lichen on the exterior to blend with the bark.