Saturday, May 16, 2015

PHOEBE-THE-FLYCATCHER

One of my favorite riverbank birds is the Eastern Phoebe, a smallish, gray-brown songbird with buff underbelly and rather oversized head. 

Phoebes are members of the tyrant flycatcher family. Common hereabouts. And in spite of the "Eastern" prefix, found throughout much of the United States and Canada except for the deep South and arid Southwest.

The alert and dapper little bird takes it names from the male's raspy, two-note song: fee-bee! fee-bee! Moreover, the phoebe is one of the earliest winter migrants to return to their annual breeding grounds each spring. Thus, when you hear their distinctive, eponymous call in mid-March, it's always a welcome confirmation that—regardless of current weather—vernal change is already underway.

Phoebes are, as their flycatcher designation suggests, primarily insect eaters. And flying insects—mayflies, caddisflies, bees, wasps, dragonflies, beetles, butterflies, moths, cicadas, etc.—make up the bulk of their diet. They like to hunt fairly open areas, and are especially fond of streams, which regularly offer rich hatches of aquatic insects. 

From a low perch, they sit—often with their tail bobbing, as if in nervous anticipation—carefully watching an area for bugs. When some flying tidbit is spotted, the phoebe makes a swiftly-launched aerial intercept, quickly nailing their prey with deadly accuracy. Depending on the size of their hapless victim, they'll either eat on-the-wing, or return to their observation perch for a more leisurely meal. 

The phoebe in the photo (yeah, I'm just guessing it's the same bird) has been perching and feeding from this dead limb near the end of the deck all week, regularly singing its name…fee-bee! fee-bee!…and of course, keeping me pleasantly distracted. 
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13 comments:

Gail said...

HI GRIZZ 0 beautiful image and great lesson about one of nature's blessings. You really do 'teach' and capture nature's beautiful natural bounty and mystery so well. All to be so in awe of and wowed!! Thanks!!
Happy weekend
Love Gail
peace.....

Moonmuser said...

Thanks for the heads up on my blog...I will fix it.

Very adorable bird...so petite.. Your place is bird heaven!

Phoebe Penwick was a former pseudonym of mine...another fact you didn't know about me!

Grizz………… said...

Gail…

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoy so many of these posts. My main goal, always, is to share—both via words and photos. And to avoid, at all costs, becoming boring or "preachy," so I hope you'll jump all over me like a junkyard dog on a midnight trespasser if I do.

Grizz………… said...

Moonmuser…

Phoebes, in their dress, always strike me as such elegant little birds—much like chickadees. And their manner is so sparklingly alert.

I'm not sure I would have admitted such a pseudonym. ;-)

Gail said...

Hi again - if I could take preaching or a lecture from any be it would be you - however, I hear ya and I could also be that junkyard dog you mentioned if need be, :-)
Love ya
Gail
peace.....

Grizz………… said...

Gail…

I'll try to never start doing the former, if you'll always do the latter. That is…should I get to preaching or lecturing, you come rushing at me barking and snarling, showing your teeth and threatening to bite!

Gail said...

Deal!!

Moonmuser said...

I hope you would not ever admit to being named Phoebe, you being a guy
and all...lol

Grizz………… said...

Moonmuser…

Nope, don't have to and never will…as I can't imagine anything, including a six-figure bribe or being tortured by the Taliban, that would induce me to stoop so low as to byline anything—even a grocery list—as Phoebe Penwick!

Moonmuser said...

If it exonerates me any, I never actually used it!! I

I did have to use a fake name when I wrote for a women's publication, though, to placate our old publisher...conflict of interest and all that.... we settled on "Cat Callahan."

It was kind of cool. LOL Better than Cat Ballou!

Grizz………… said...

Moonmuser…

Understand, it's not the necessity of a nom de plume, it's the appalling lack of creativity…and from an editor! Sheeesh! Even the old pulp writers wouldn't have stooped so low.

And don't go disparaging Cat Ballou—I'm rather a Lee Marvin fan.

Moonmuser said...

I, too, loved cat ballot and lee Marvin...I just thought for me, Callahan sounded better..

Ok, so what would strike you as (less appallingly) creative. (Sticks and stones....etc!). Hymeria Crombecker!
Rava Ravenwood? Constance Chadwell?

One who criticizes should suggest solutions!

Grizz………… said...

Moonmuser…

Nope, you're not going to shame me into pulling you out from this mire of your own making. I'm not the one willing to dispose of their work under a byline as phony-sounding as the worst character name ever to appear in the penny dreadfuls.