Eastern Phoebe

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Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Phoebes are among the earliest spring migrants. Males begin singing their familiar song and setting up territories immediately upon returning to their breeding grounds. The singing decreases when females arrive and nesting season begins. Males perform an erratic flight display, circling and diving while singing. Phoebes originally nested on shelves in rocky ravines that are partially sheltered from above. Today, they often nest in or around human habitations. Phoebes may build their mud and grass nests inside or under the eaves of barns and sheds; they favor the undersides of bridges and culverts. They are a frequent cowbird host.
In addition to their easily recognized song, phoebes are distinguished by their habit of slowly and incessantly wagging their tail, often with a sideways motion. Like other flycatchers, Eastern Phoebes feed mostly by sallying off a perch to capture flying insects. Bees and wasps make up a large portion of their diet, especially in late summer. Unlike other flycatchers, however, plant food in the form of berries and seeds are a significant part-as much as 10 percent-of their diet, primarily during winter.

Eastern Phoebes are among the hardiest of flycatchers. Wintering population densities are highest where minimum temperatures are greater than 40 degrees, but some linger through mild winters as far north as southern New England and southern Illinois. Population fluctuations have been observed and attributed to winter mortality in severe winters and to cowbird parasitism.
Eastern Phoebe Range Map

Description: Eastern Phoebes are medium-sized flycatchers. They are brownish gray above, darkest on the wings, tail, and head, and have dark bills. Underparts are whitish with an olive wash on the breast and flanks. They lack the eye rings and wing bars of the Empidonax flycatchers; they are similar in appearance to Eastern Wood Pewees (Contopus virens), but they lack that species' wing bars and orangish lower mandible.

In the briefly held juvenal plumage, the upperparts are browner than the adult’s with cinnamon tips to the feathers of the lower back, rump, and tail. The wings show two yellowish white wing bars and the underparts are yellowish white. In both juveniles and adults, a premigration molt in August results in a plumage that is pale yellow below and greenish above. These colors fade by spring.

Around 1840, John James Audubon became America's first bird bander, and the Eastern Phoebe became America's first banded bird, after he "fixed a light silver thread to the leg" of several nestlings. When he returned to the area the following year, he located two of the banded birds with their own nests, evidence for his supposition that birds return to their natal home to breed.

Visit Shaw Creek Bird Supply to see our Eastern Phoebe Nesting Perch.