Pewee

The pewees are a genus, Contopus, of small to medium-sized insect-eating birds in the Tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae.

Pewees
Western wood pewee (Contopus sordidulus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Tyrannidae
Genus: Contopus
Cabanis, 1855
Type species
Muscicapa virens
Linnaeus, 1766
Species

See text.

These birds are known as pewees, from the call of one of the more common members of this vocal group. They are generally charcoal-grey birds with wing bars that live in wooded areas.

The genus Contopus was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1855 with the eastern wood pewee as the type species.[1] The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek words kontos "pole" or "shaft" and pous "foot".[2]

The genus contains 15 species:[3]

ImageScientific nameCommon NameDistribution
Contopus cooperiOlive-sided flycatcherCanada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States
Contopus pertinaxGreater peweecentral and southern Mexico south through Costa Rica and Nicaragua
Contopus lugubrisDark peweeTalamancan montane forests of Costa Rica and western Panama.
Contopus fumigatusSmoke-colored peweeArgentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela
Contopus ochraceusOchraceous peweeCosta Rica and western Panama
Contopus sordidulusWestern wood peweewestern North America
Contopus virensEastern wood peweeCentral America and in the Andes region of northern South America.
Contopus cinereusTropical peweesouthern Mexico and Trinidad south to Bolivia and Argentina.
Contopus punensisTumbes peweewestern Ecuador and western Peru.
Contopus albogularisWhite-throated peweeBrazil, French Guiana, and Suriname.
Contopus nigrescensBlackish peweeBrazil, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru.
Contopus caribaeusCuban peweeCuba and the northern Bahamas.
Contopus hispaniolensisHispaniolan peweeisland of Hispaniola in the Caribbean.
Contopus pallidusJamaican peweeJamaica
Contopus latirostrisLesser Antillean peweeDominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico, and Saint Lucia



References

  1. Cabanis, Jean (1855). "Contopus virens Cab". Journal für Ornithologie (in German). 3 (18): 479.
  2. Jobling, J.A. (2018). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  3. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Tyrant flycatchers". World Bird List Version 8.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
  • Media related to Contopus at Wikimedia Commons
  • Data related to Contopus at Wikispecies
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