Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE FREE-TOED PERCHING BIRDS
THE TYRANT-BIRDS
Phoebe
Another very common and familiar member of this group is the Phcebe (Sayornis phcebe) of eastern North America, a bird olive-grayish above, darker on the top of the head, and whitish washed with yellowish below, tinged with brownish gray on the breast; the length is about seven inches. As Mr. Chapman very well says: ”There is something familiar, trustful, and homelike in the Phoebe's ways which has won him an undisputed place in our affections. With an assurance born of many welcomes he returns each year to his perch on the bridge-rail, barnyard gate, or piazza, and contentedly sings his humble, monotonous pewit phcebe, pewit phcebe, — a hopelessly tuneless performance; but who that has heard it in early spring when the 'pussy willow' seems almost to purr with soft blossoms, will not affirm that Phcebe touches chords dumb to more ambitious songsters!”The Phcebe is not at all pugnacious, but trustful and confiding, and takes up its home near human habitations, placing its bulky, deeply cup-shaped nest of moss and mud, lined with grasses and hairs, on the beam of a barn, under a bridge, or behind a projecting ledge of rock, and there, often in full sight of people constantly passing, it rears its young. In the western United States the place is largely taken by two allied species, — the Black Phcebe (5. nigricans), which is slate-black throughout except for the white abdomen, and Say's Phcebe (S. saya), in which the abdomen is light cinnamon or tawny.