COntopus sordidulus veliei
Status: Common regular spring and fall migrant west, locally rare west central, rare casual elsewhere. Common regular breeder west, locally rare west central.
Documentation: Specimen: UNSM ZM6396, 24 May 1900 Monroe Canyon, Sioux Co.
Taxonomy: Four subspecies are recognized, two north of Mexico: saturatus from southeast Alaska to western Oregon, and veliei, of the western and west-central USA south to northern Mexico (Gill et al 2022).
Nebraska birds are veliei (Pyle 1997).
Hybridization between Eastern and Western Wood-Pewees does occur in a narrow contact zone, see the Western x Eastern Wood-Pewee hybrid account.
Changes Since 2000: Western Wood-Pewee has extended its range eastward, mainly in three areas, the Niobrara River Valley, western Loup Drainage, and especially the North Platte River Valley. In each of these areas, except possibly the western Loup Drainage, both wood-pewee species occur together.
Spring: May 14, 14, 14 <<<>>> summer
Earlier dates are 3 May 2017 Chadron SP, Dawes Co, 9 May 2020 Smith Lake WMA, Sheridan Co, 9 May 2022 Scotts Bluff Co, and 11 May 2023 Kimball Co.
Arrival is in late May. There are no Kansas specimens earlier than 29 Apr (Thompson and Ely 1992).
Migrants may occur somewhat east of the summer range but are difficult to identify unless calling. The only easterly reports with supporting documentation (calling) are 21 May 2011 Dakota Co, 23 May 2015 Antelope Co, 27 May 2010 Knox Co, and 30 May 2009 Hooker Co.
- High counts: 48 in 4 miles of Monroe Canyon 4 Jun 2020, 40-50 at Box Butte Reservoir, Dawes Co 26 May 2005, and “dozens” at Chadron SP 3 Jun 2005.
Summer: Breeding Western Wood-Pewees are most numerous in the Pine Ridge and the Niobrara River Valley in Sioux, Dawes, Sheridan, and Cherry Cos, and the North Platte River Valley and Wildcat Hills in Scotts Bluff Co.
Rosche (1994) placed the easternmost site of regular Panhandle breeding in canyons south of Redington in Morrill Co, but more recently there have been several reports east of the Panhandle.
The present eastward limit of regular breeding in the Niobrara River Valley is uncertain, although Western Wood-Pewee occurs east to the Niobrara Valley Preserve, Brown and Keya Paha Cos (below). The contact zone between Western and Eastern Wood-Pewees may be moving eastward and around 1960 was thought to lie between the Pine Ridge and Valentine (Short 1961). A Jun 1988 Sheridan Co report was of the two “singing side by side” (Grzybowski 1988); a nest was observed at Smith Lake WMA, Sheridan Co, in 2001 (Mollhoff 2004) and nest-building was observed there 8 Jun 2006 (Mollhoff 2006). It was common at Smith Lake WMA 1984-2008, with best count 25 during 15-31 Aug 2005 (Steven Jones, personal communication); this WMA is located on a tributary of the Niobrara River. Songs with the “song pattern of Eastern Wood-Pewee and tone quality of Western Wood-Pewee” were “documented” in Cherry Co 21 May 1989 (Grzybowski 1989). There have been reports from Valentine, Cherry Co since around 1990, and reports are increasing in the area drained by tributaries of the Niobrara River southwest of Valentine. Breeding was confirmed at Valentine NWR 12 Jul 2006, several were 10-20 miles southwest of Valentine Jun-Jul 2008, one was at Snake River Falls, NNF McKelvie 13 Jun 2002, and 14 were at NNF McKelvie 24 May 2023.
Earliest reports for Keya Paha Co and Brown Co are 7 Jun 1985 and 22 Jun 2003 respectively. More recently, singing birds were noted in Keya Paha and Brown Cos 19 Jun 2012 at locations where Eastern Wood-Pewees were also present. In 2016 a Western Wood-Pewee singing at Holt Creek WMA, Keya Paha Co 24 Jul responded to a Western Wood-Pewee call playback but not to an Eastern Wood-Pewee call playback; a nearby Eastern Wood-Pewee did indeed respond to the latter playback. At the Niobrara Valley Preserve, Brown and Keya Paha Cos, 1-2 were found 11 Jun 2015 and 19 Jun 2015, and reports have continued since. Easternmost in Brown Co are reports from Keller Park SRA 12-13 Jun 2019 and 26 May and 27 Jun 2023, and from Long Pine 22 Aug 2020. A singing bird northwest of Niobrara, Knox Co 21 Jun 2003 was on the South Dakota side of the Missouri River.
In the western Sandhills, Western Wood-Pewees had been present in summer around 1980 at Crescent Lake NWR (Roger Sharpe, personal communication), but there have been no reports since 7 May 1995 and 5 Jun 1999. Summer reports are few but increasing in the western Loup Drainage; at NNF Bessey, Thomas Co, a territorial male was present 28 May 1980, one was found 4 Jun 1993 Thomas Co (Bray 1994), one on 12 Jun 2010, two on 16 Jun 2015, one on 6 Jun 2022, and as many as four during Jun-Aug 2023. One was calling at Thedford, Thomas Co 25 May 2021. Elsewhere in the western Loup Drainage reports of single birds are 4 Jun 1986 Grant Co, 31 May-7 Jun 1982 McPherson Co, 8 Jun 2008 and 27 Jun 1956 Logan Co, and 23 Jun 2003 in Arthur Co.
Easterly reports continue in the North Platte River valley. The species has been present in the Lewellen, Garden Co area at the west end of Lake McConaughy for at least 20 years; Rosche (1994) cited three nesting records in “lakeside cottonwood forest” in southeast Garden Co 1987-1993, and 8-9 singing males were in the area 27 Jul 1997. Brown et al (1996) banded singles in the Lake Ogallala, Keith Co area 16 and 30 May and 5 Jun, including a female with a brood patch, and recent summer reports there are 18 Jun 2008 and 4 Jun 2015. Reports in Lincoln Co began with a sighting 19 May 2007; 1-2 were heard and seen 3 Jun 2008, and singles in southeast Lincoln Co 6 Jul 2009 and 18 Jun 2010 mark the current easterly limit. Further indication of increasing numbers in the Lincoln Co area were the five singing in cottonwood savannah habitat northwest of Paxton 10 Jul 2009; another was just northwest of North Platte 7 Jul 2015.
In southwest Nebraska it was described as breeding in eastern Colorado on the South Platte River into Deuel Co, Nebraska (Andrews and Righter 1992); Short (1961) suggested that contact may occur there with Eastern Wood-Pewee. However, other than a Cheyenne Co report 11 Jun 1992, there have been no further reports in that area. Further south, in Dundy Co, there was a “possible” breeding report in the period 1984-98 (Mollhoff 2001), eight were counted there 14 Jun 2006, and breeding was confirmed when three “fuzzy fledglings” were found 15 Jul 2008. An older report was of one in cottonwood forest at Swanson Reservoir SRA, Hitchcock Co 9 Jun 1990 (Grzybowski 1990). There are no breeding season reports since 2008 from Dundy or Hitchcock Cos, despite a few reports of migrants.
- Breeding Phenology:
Nest-building: 8 Jun-1 Jul
Eggs: 10 Jun- 15 Jul (Mollhoff 2022)
Nestlings: 23 Jun- 20 Aug
Fledglings: 12 Aug - High counts: 51 in Sowbelly Canyon, Sioux Co 13 Jun 2019, 38 at Chadron SP, Dawes Co 24 Jun 2021, 33 in Sowbelly Canyon, Sioux Co 20 Jun 2020, 33 at Gordon, Sheridan Co 26 Jun 2022, and 27 at Gilbert-Baker WMA, Sioux Co 11 Jul 2022.
Fall: summer <<<>>> Sep 23, 23, 24
Later dates are 29 Sep 2022 Oliver Reservoir, Kimball Co, and 30 Sep 2018 Scotts Bluff Co.
Fall movement begins in early Aug and departure is in mid-Sep; there are no Kansas specimens later than 17 Sep (Thompson and Ely 1992).
Reports east of the breeding range are few and undocumented; field identification of non-calling birds is virtually impossible (see Comments). Last dates above are from well within the Panhandle breeding range.
- High counts: 50 at Wind Springs Ranch, Sioux Co 30 Aug 2008, 41 in Sowbelly Canyon, Sioux Co 24 Aug 2019, 35 at Sowbelly Canyon, Sioux Co 13 Aug 2021, 34 in Scotts Bluff Co 12 Aug 2002, 26 in Sioux Co 4 Aug 2000, 25 at Smith Lake WMA 14 Aug 2005 and 25 at Oliver Reservoir, Kimball Co 29 Aug 2020.
Comments: Vagrancy east of the Great Plains is rare; there are about 25 such records throughout the eastern US (eBird.org, accessed Nov 2023), including one for Iowa, Jun 1979 (IOURC).
Determination of the range limits of this species and of Eastern Wood-Pewee is difficult because of the problems of identification of the two away from their regular breeding grounds. They are very similar in appearance, even sometimes considered conspecific (Mayr and Short 1970) and may hybridize to a limited extent (see the Western x Eastern Wood-Pewee hybrid account).
Plumage characteristics are at best suggestive, and vocalizations may be misleading, although generally species-specific if carefully heard (Rising and Schueler 1980). Short (1961) studied the wood- pewees in Nebraska, and noted that while songs usually identify these species, “occasional songs of Western Wood-Pewee are virtually indistinguishable from Eastern Wood-Pewee singing abbreviated [rather than full] songs.”
Thompson et al (2011) cited information regarding eight pewee specimens collected in southwestern Kansas 7 Jun-6 Aug; they were identified as one Eastern Wood-Pewee (C. virens), five Western Wood-Pewees, and two intermediate but somewhat closer by coloration to Western Wood-Pewee.
The identification problem may not have been important earlier in the 20th century, as Swenk and Dawson (1921) indicated that Western Wood-Pewee occurred only west of the 100th meridian and its range and that of Eastern Wood-Pewee “do not anywhere meet.”
Mollhoff (2022) mentioned egg sets collected Douglas, Sarpy, and Otoe Cos in the 1890s labelled as of Western Wood-Pewee but considered these sets mis-identified Eastern Wood-Pewee sets.
Images
Abbreviations
NNF: Nebraska National Forest
NWR: National Wildlife Refuge
SP: State Park
SRA: State Recreation Area
UNSM: University of Nebraska State Museum
WMA: Wildlife Management Area (State)
Literature Cited
Andrews, R., and R. Righter. 1992. Colorado birds. Denver Museum of Natural History, Denver, Colorado, USA.
Bray, T.E. 1994. Habitat utilization by birds in a man-made forest in the Nebraska Sandhills. Master’s thesis, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
Brown, C.R., M.B. Brown, P.A. Johnsgard, J. Kren, and W.C. Scharf. 1996. Birds of the Cedar Point Biological Station area, Keith and Garden Counties, Nebraska: Seasonal occurrence and breeding data. Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences 23: 91-108.
Gill, F., D. Donsker, and P. Rasmussen (Eds). 2022. IOC World Bird List (v 12.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.12.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
Grzybowski, J.A. 1988. Southern Great Plains Region. American Birds 42: 1308-1310.
Grzybowski, J.A. 1989. Southern Great Plains Region. American Birds 43: 499-501.
Grzybowski, J.A. 1990. Southern Great Plains Region. American Birds 44: 1152-1154.
Mayr, E., and L.L. Short. 1970. Species taxa of North American birds, a contribution to avian systematics. Publications of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, No. 9. Nuttall Ornithological Club, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Mollhoff, W.J. 2001. The Nebraska Breeding Bird Atlas 1984-1989. Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union Occasional Papers No. 7. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
Mollhoff, W.J. 2004. The 2001 Nesting Report. NBR 72: 99-103.
Mollhoff, W.J. 2006. The 2006 Nebraska nest report. NBR 74: 142-147.
Mollhoff, W.J. 2022. Nest records of Nebraska birds. Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union Occasional Paper Number 9.
Pyle, P. 1997. Identification Guide to North American Birds. Part I, Columbidae to Ploceidae. Slate Creek Press, Bolinas, California, USA.
Rising, J.D., and F.W. Schueler. 1980. Identification and status of wood-pewees (Contopus) from the Great Plains: what are sibling species? Condor 82: 301-308.
Rosche, R.C. 1994. Birds of the Lake McConaughy area and the North Platte River valley, Nebraska. Published by the author, Chadron, Nebraska, USA.
Short, L.L., Jr. 1961. Notes on bird distribution in the central Plains. NBR 29: 2-22.
Swenk, M.H., and R.W. Dawson. 1921. Notes on the distribution and migration of Nebraska birds I. Tyrant Flycatchers (Tyrannidae). Wilson Bulletin 33: 132-141.
Thompson, M.C., and C.A. Ely. 1992. Birds in Kansas. Vol. 2. University of Kansas Museum Natural History Publications Educational Series No. 12, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
Thompson, M.C., C.A. Ely, B. Gress, C. Otte, S.T. Patti, D. Seibel, and E.A. Young. 2011. Birds of Kansas. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2023. Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Birds of Nebraska – Online
Updated 26 Dec 2023