Meet the Eastern Wood PeWee

The Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens) is a small bird, recognizable in the Eastern United States for its distinctive pee-a-weeee song. This bird’s diet consists almost entirely of insects with some occasional berries. It likes to perch on branches in the tree canopy and catch insect prey as it flies by. The Eastern Wood-Pewee is a bird that mainly lives in deciduous wooded areas and forest edges. Their small nest becomes camouflaged in the canopy, as it is covered in lichen and small enough to pass as a tree knot. The males of this species are very territorial during mating season, and will often change their song and noise patterns in response to other males. This species is listed as low concern because it is a common bird. However, the population of this species has decreased slightly every year for the past half century, likely due to white-tailed deer populations’ impact on the canopy where pewees forage. To learn more about the Eastern Wood-Pewee, visit: https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/eastern-wood-pewee 

This Wildlife Wednesday created by Zander Hine, ACWA Student Board member