Walking along a trail in a northern Illinois woodlands, I noticed the silhouette of our earliest arriving migratory flycatcher.
It’s not a colorful bird — Its body and wings are grayish-brown, its head is slightly darker and it has a white breast.
Getting excited about a grayish-brown and white bird may not make much sense. But this species, called an eastern phoebe, is a sight for sore birders’ eyes. By middle to late March, the phoebe returns to Illinois from the southeastern United States and Mexico to set up territory. In early April, it’s in full-fledged nesting mode.
It perches on tree branches even before the leaves have emerged. It lifts its tail up and down, and when it gets the inkling, it sings its name. Phoebe. Phoebe. Sometimes the second “phoebe” has a buzzy quality to it.
Flycatchers are a family of birds that eat insects and cannot live in northern Illinois in winter when their food choices are scarce. But phoebes seem to come back even before there’s an insect to be seen, by humans anyway.
Eastern phoebes have a knack for getting insects that other flycatchers cannot. A birder once observed a phoebe hovering above the ground around the end of December. The birder bent down and looked closer. There he saw what he called, “these little bitsy teen weeny gnat-like things hovering around a small open section of otherwise frozen water.”
The phoebe was getting plenty of protein from the insects rising above the water.
Phoebes tend to nest around human-built structures, such as bridges and overhanging decks where there may be more insects. Before these manmade buildings were commonplace, phoebes nested on bare rock outcrops.
One of my favorite bridges to look for eastern phoebes early in the season is at Wright Woods in Vernon Hills. The bridge goes over the Des Plaines River leading to Half Day Forest Preserve. For years, I’ve seen a pair of phoebes nesting underneath the bridge’s metal support beams.
I peer over the bridge and look for a phoebe sitting on a low perch and moving its tail while seeking flying insects. When an insect is seen, the phoebe quickly chases its prey, swallows it and returns to the same perch or one nearby. I return again and again through mid-summer to look for the phoebe.
Phoebes build nests made of moss, mud, grass, stems and animal hair. This time of year, a lucky and patient nature-lover might see a phoebe with a mouthful of green moss that she will deliver to her nest site.
Phoebes eat wasps, dragonflies, butterflies, moths, midges, spiders and cicadas. With the emergence of the 17-year cicadas in northern Illinois sometime in late May, phoebes will have more than enough food to feed their young. I’ll be at the bridge watching the show.
Beginning birders can confuse eastern phoebes with another similar-looking flycatcher, the eastern wood-pewee. But this flycatcher doesn’t return until May. It has a much longer flight to get up north, coming all the way from its winter home in the northwestern part of South America.
The best way to tell these two flycatchers apart is by listening to their songs. While the phoebe sings a buzzy two-syllable song, the eastern wood-pewee sings a clear “pee-wee, pee-a-wee-pee-a-wee” and “pee-ur.”
The wood-pewee has a grayer body than the phoebe, and a bit of a crest atop its head. The phoebe has an all-black bill, while pewees typically have a two-tone bill, orange on the bottom, and dark on the top.
Pewees also have white bars on their wings. Phoebes can have wing bars, too, but they are much duller.
This is a good time to examine the plumage of phoebes, before the pewees arrive later.
What’s fun about phoebes is that they often use the same nests and nest sites from previous years, which is why I know right where to go at Wright Woods to find this bird species.
Take a walk in a wooded area with some sheds, bridges or other manmade structures and listen for the phoebe. If you’re lucky you may find it building a nest and showing off its fly-catching prowess.
Sheryl DeVore has worked as a full-time and freelance reporter, editor and photographer for the Chicago Tribune and its subsidiaries. She’s the author of several books on nature and the environment. Send story ideas and thoughts to sheryldevorewriter@gmail.com.