The Eastern Phoebe – Coveted Backyard Flycatcher

A Feisty Brown and White Insect Eater That Likes to Nest Near People

Aug 21, 2009

The Eastern Phoebe is an energetic short-distance migrant found throughout much of Canada and the United States and the only flycatcher that winters in southeastern U.S.

Known for its sharp double-trill “fee-bee” for which it is named rather than for any bright coloring, this little brown bird is sometimes mistaken for an Eastern Wooded Peewee due to the crest, the dark feathers on the back, and its pale underbody.

Male and female Eastern Phoebes look the same, averaging from 5 to 7 inches in length, with a wingspan of 10-11 inches, and weighing a scant .7 oz. With more contrasting coloring in the spring than the gray Peewee, Eastern Phoebes sport rich beaver brown feathers on their back and slightly darker wings without wing bars. Their darker coloring tends to fade toward fall when they begin migration.

The Phoebe’s crest becomes more pronounced when it is excited and the buff underbody strongly contrasts with its back, starting right underneath the beak and running from the throat all the way to the black legs, with a light fringe outlining the tail feathers.

Nesting Description and Behavior

Phoebes build nests under the eaves of houses, barns, and garages, in open construction, under bridges, in tool sheds, and on the protruding corners of square supports atop round residential porch columns. This preference for buildings has allowed the Phoebe to accept the frequent and sometimes dramatic landscape changes to its larger surroundings. While normally solitary, during the nesting season multiple Phoebe nests have been located in barns and other open buildings simultaneously.

A Phoebe nest appears like an open cup made of mud, with mud and saliva being the cement used to superglue their nests to rock or building walls. Usually built under eaves or near ceilings for shelter, their nests may be found balanced on tiny platforms where it would seem impossible to attach anything. They lay around five white speckled eggs, which the female incubates for about 16 days, and the young then fledge in another 16 days.

Phoebes generally raise two broods, and observation has shown spring nests usually fledge one more nestling than summer broods. Phoebes usually use the same nest for both clutches during the year, and return to remodel the nest and use it again each succeeding year..

Phoebe Mating, Habitat, and Ecology

Probably the most familiar flycatcher in the Northeast, the Eastern Phoebe has a penchant for settling near human habitations, with most sources listing nest placement on or around man-made structures. A friendly little bird, Phoebes tend to form bonds with farmers, gardeners, and stablehands, getting comfortable close to human residences where people are frequently outside.

They prefer to forage in open woodlands near water and along forest edges near residential clearings where they find the bugs they subsist on. Like all flycatchers, Phoebes actively earn their keep eating primarily flying insects and spiders, mosquitoes, gnats, and occasionally berries. Sometimes their diet switches almost wholly to fruit if over-wintering in cool climes, but overwintering is rare. They are also attracted to tree sap from Sapsucker drillings.

Rather than constantly being in flight like others of the flycatcher species, Phoebes perch to hunt, often pumping their tails up and down while watching for bugs, and may be seen hovering to take insects from vertical surfaces. It is a good idea to cultivate the presence of these voracious little gobblers of biting insects. Since they are often the first migrant bird to arrive in the Northeast to begin nesting, installing a nesting shelf high under a building overhang around the home may attract a nesting pair in th early spring..

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology - http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Phoebe/lifehistory

Weeks, H. P., Jr. 1994. Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe). In The Birds of North America, No. 94 (A. Poole, and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.

Terres, J. The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1980.

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