Richard R. Veit and Lucinda C. Zawadzki
Western Wood-Pewee. Photograph by Richard R. Veit.
We identified a Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus) on Tuckernuck Island at about 6:30 am on June 9, 2024. We describe this sighting and take this opportunity to review other records for the east coast of North America. We first heard the characteristic and species-specific, downward-slurred call—bzzhewww or beeeer—of a Western Wood-Pewee at the Windsor House at the western end of Tuckernuck. Photographs and recordings of the call of the Tuckernuck bird are posted on eBird <https://ebird.org/checklist/S180850487>. We quickly located the bird a short walk to the west of the house, where we used cell phones to take multiple photographs and approximately 15 recordings of its distinctive call. We subsequently followed the bird to the east end of the island, where we obtained more vocal recordings. The bird uttered only a single, down-slurred bzzheew call (see above) and none of the other more whistled notes sometimes uttered by Westerns. We could not relocate the bird the following day, and presume it left the island.
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