Say’s phoebes return to North Central Washington in the early spring, sometimes arriving in February from southern Mexico. Their call is a down slurred “pe-eer”. This bird is mostly brownish-gray with a cinnamon belly and black tail. Perched on a small bush, fence post, or weed, they fly out, catch an insect and return to a perch. They sometimes hover and drop onto an insect.

Often nesting near people, Say’s phoebes build a nest on a sheltered cliff ledge, building, or bridge, in open country. The bulky shallow cup nest is of dry grasses, plant stems and fibers, moss and spider webs, lined with hair.

Say’s phoebes have 4 or 5 eggs, which the female incubates for 15 days. The adult birds’ diet and food for their young is insects, and like other flycatchers they feed by sitting quietly on a perch, then darting out to catch an insect in the air, then flying back to their perch to wait for the next bite to fly along. They eat wild bees, ants, bugs, moths, crickets, grasshoppers, dragonflies, spiders, millipedes, and sow bugs. They regurgitate the hard parts of insects in small pellets. The young leave the nest after 14 days, and are tended by the male while the female re-nests.

Say’s phoebe was named for Thomas Say, a brilliant entomologist who accompanied Major Stephen Long’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1819 and 1820. Early spring is the time to look and listen for this little flycatcher, a harbinger of spring.

photo by Doug Backlund