Our neighborhood is probably not wooded enough for an Eastern Phoebe to nest in, but one did hang around our city block for more than a week back in May.
I smiled whenever I heard its raspy “fee-bee” call while I was planting flowers.
Eastern Phoebes spend their winters in Mexico and along the Gulf Coast of the United States. They return to much of the Eastern United States in spring for nesting season.
I often see Eastern Phoebes in the spring on nature hikes, but this is the first time one has spent some time on our block.
These birds are in the flycatcher family. They like to hang out on low branches and then swoop out to catch insects. They’ll often return to the same perch, so that makes them much more easy to photograph than a lot of the other spring birds that are hopping about looking for caterpillars in the tree tops.
Unlike many bird species that are struggling because of loss of habitat, Eastern Phoebe numbers have actually increased because they learned to use buildings for nest sites.