One of our most familiar eastern flycatchers, the Eastern Phoebe’s raspy ‘phoebe’ call is a frequent sound around yards and farms in the spring and summer.  Its plumage is gray-brown above with a white throat, dirty gray breast and buffish underparts which become whiter during the breeding season.  The songbirds sit upright and wag their tails from prominent, low perches.   In 1804, the Eastern Phoebe became the first banded bird in North America when John James Audubon attached silver thread to one’s leg to track its return in successive years.

The Eastern Phoebe places their mud and grass nests in protected nooks on bridges, barns and houses.  The nest is an open cup with a mud base lined with moss and grass.  Only the female builds the nest.  Nests can take from 5-14 days to build and are about 5 inches across when finished.   The female will lay 2-6 eggs with an incubation period of 15-16 days.  The nestling period is 16-20 days, and the chicks are helpless at hatching with eyes closed and sparse gray down.   The cowbird may lay an egg in an Eastern Phoebe’s nest, with the Eastern Phoebe raising the cowbird at hatching.

Flying insects make up the majority of their diet.  Common prey includes wasps, beetles, dragonflies, butterflies, spiders, and ticks.  The Eastern Phoebe is a loner, rarely coming in contact with other phoebes.  The Eastern Phoebe is migratory, wintering in southern United States and Central America.  

The Eastern Phoebe population has increased slightly from 1966 to 2019 so is of low conservation concern.  Both sexes, but particularly the female, attempt to defend the nest against predators such as snakes, jays, crows, chipmunks, mice and House Wrens.  The oldest known Eastern Phoebe was at least 10 years, 4 months old.  It had been banded in Iowa in 1979 and was found in 1989 in Alberta, Canada.