Summary

  • Natural history: The Eastern Wood-Pewee is one of only a few long-distance migrants nesting in Vermont that keep singing well into late summer, long after their young have fledged, for reasons ornithologists still don’t fully understand, possibly to hold a feeding territory or stake a claim for next year. It nests in open deciduous woodland with a distinct edge nearby, and its slow decline has been linked both to the maturation of Vermont’s forests, which reduces that edge habitat, and to heavy browsing by white-tailed deer elsewhere in its range, which strips out the shrubby understory where pewees forage.
  • Status in VT: Decreased by 4% (167 to 160 blocks). Greatest decrease in Northeastern Highlands.
  • Data from other research: FBMP: no sig. trend.
  • Conservation status: State rank S5B
  • Other atlases: NY: -4%; PA: 1%; MD: 2%
  • VT’s role in North American range: VT is within the core of the range.
  • Causes of change since first Atlas: Depletion of subcanopy vegetation from extensive browsing by white-tailed deer (?); reduction of woodland habitat due to forest maturation (?).
  • Management/Monitoring recommendations:No current recommendations.

Population Trends

Eastern Wood-Pewee graph

First Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (1976-1981)

Species Account

Second Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (2003 – 2007)

Species Account

Eastern Wood-Pewee Map 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee Table 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee Table 2

Change in Distribution

mapkey Eastern Wood-Pewee Map 2 Eastern Wood-Pewee Table 3

Links

Vermont eBird

Encyclopedia of Life

All About Birds