Scientific Name: Contopus virens

Other common names: Eastern pewee, pewit, pewee flycatcher

Size: This bird weighs on average about one-half ounce, and is about 6 - 7 inches long.

Appearance: Upperparts are a dusky grayish olive, underparts are pale yellow-white, with a olive wash over the sides of the breast and on the flanks. Two white bars on the wing and a yellow lower jaw. Has a pale line down the center of it's breast and no eye ring. When perched, it sits motionless, without bobbing it's tail.

Range: Winters in Central and South America, migrates north to eastern United States and Canada from April to May.

Habitat: Likes deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous woodlands, or shady parks and gardens in human-populated areas.

Mating: Males pursue females vigorously in courtship chase. Once mated, the pair is monogamous. Pairs split up after the young are raised, then the individuals remain solitary until the following Spring mating season.

Nesting: horizontal limb of oak, maple, elm or other hardwood tree about 15 - 50 feet up in the air. Nest is cup-shaped, about 3 inches in diameter and so covered on the outside with lichens and moss that it is almost impossible to spot from the ground. Structure of the nest consists of weed stems, plant fibers, spider cocoons, string, etc., the inside is lined with soft substances such as wool, grasses, bits of thread, or horsehair.

Eggs: average 3 eggs laid from May through early July, only one brood per year. The eggs are incubated for 13 days and the young are ready to leave the nest 15 - 18 days after hatching. Both the male and the female incubate the eggs.

Diet: flies, beetles, wasps, ants, tussock and gypsy moths, canker worms treehoppers, bugs, grasshoppers, as well as elderberries, blackberries, pokeberries.

Hunting Technique: hovers and gleans throughout the wood, darting off a hidden perch to catch an unwary insect flying by, then doing a quick reverse to fly back to it's perch. Forages high in the tree canopy.

Status: found in every county in West Virginia, with probable breeding activity in all but the highest elevations.

Naturalist Notes: fairly regular but not overly common host to brown-headed cowbirds