Bird of the Month: Say’s Phoebe
The stately Say’s Phoebe is a slender, medium sized flycatcher with muted gray-brown, earth-toned plumage and a blackish tail that fans as it’s pumped repeatedly by the perched bird. It shows a creamy salmon colored wash on its belly and underparts.
Keep your eyes low to the ground and watch for quick movements from low shrubs as they sally out to grab an insect or two. Look for them perched on top of low shrubs or fence posts. You’ll rarely ever see this bird above six feet as it hovers menacingly over insects on the ground before deftly snatching prey and returning swiftly to its favored low perch. The diet is primarily insects including grasshoppers, flies, crickets, beetles and bees.
Our local winter population is comprised of regional Orange County breeding residents with numbers markedly augmented by migrants from far to the north. Although we consider the Say’s Phoebe to be a bird of dry open-country, low scrub of the coastal lowland and deserts, the additional winter migrants may have nested as far north as the Alaskan and Canadian tundra. Our mild winters and abundant insects provide fertile overwintering grounds before their springtime return north.
Photos by James Kendall. Written by Betty Kanne