NATURE CLICKS #510 - EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE

Yesterday we were treated with a nice performance of an Eastern Wood-Pewee, feeding two juveniles in our front yard. This small flycatcher is present every year in our woods but I have never seen more than one at a time. Their song, a slurred “pee-ah-wee” or their call, a shrill “p-e-e-e-e-e-“ makes it easy to locate them between the leaves.

They sally out from an exposed perch to capture flies, bees, butterflies, wasps, and beetles and often return to the same perch. This makes it more predictable for the photographer. We had some rain and the adult pewee found plenty of insects near the ground for its offspring.

Juvenile Eastern Wood-Pewee

Another flycatcher, the Eastern Phoebe, looks very similar, but the pewee has a yellow base on its lower mandible while the phoebe’s bill is all dark. Another way to distinguish the two species is looking at their behavior on the perch. The Eastern Phoebe pumps its tail and the wing bars are less distinctive.

NATURE CLICKS #297 - EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, SB 800 speed ligh

The light of the setting sun was great for bird photography the last couple nights down in Mud Lake Park at the Mississippi River. Another candidate that will strike off soon towards the tropics is the Eastern Wood-Pewee. This one here is probably a juvenile because you can still see some black on its otherwise yellow lower mandible. The pewee prefers an exposed perch to capture prey. This flycatcher returns quite often to the same perch and gives the photographer sometimes more than one chance to capture the image.