pewee

Catching Flies Over Strawberry Field

An Eastern Wood-Pewee on a Sunny Autumn Day

According to the Cornell Web site, "The olive-brown Eastern Wood-Pewee is inconspicuous until it opens its bill and gives its unmistakable slurred call: pee-a-wee!—a characteristic sound of Eastern summers. These small flycatchers perch on dead branches in the mid-canopy and sally out after flying insects. Though identifying flycatchers can be confusing, pewees are grayer overall, with longer wings, than other flycatchers. They lack the eyerings of the Empidonax species, while they’re less brown (with stronger wingbars) than a phoebe. With a careful look they’re quite distinctive."

Eastern wood-pewee over Strawberry Field, Central Park, Oct. 6, 2016

Eastern wood-pewee over Strawberry Field, Central Park, Oct. 6, 2016

I got to see this little bird on Oct. 6 behaving as advertised, making forays from a dead bramch, when I was looking for the young hawk in Strawberry Field. The Filming the Feathers video is set to music by Beethoven: the first movement of the Sixth Symphony, arranged for recorder ensemble.

The photos were all taken on Oct. 6.