Contopus sordidulus
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The western wood pewee (Contopus sordidulus) is a small tyrant flycatcher. Adults are gray-olive on the upperparts with light underparts, washed with olive on the breast. They have two wing bars and a dark bill with yellow at the base of the lower mandible. This bird is very similar in appearance to the eastern wood pewee; the two birds were formerly considered to be one species. The call of C. sordidulus is a loud buzzy peeer; the song consists of three rapid descending tsees ending with a descending peeer. The bird is about 5.5–6.3 in (14–16 cm) in length, 0.4–0.5 oz (11–14 g) in weight, and has a wingspan of 10.2 in (26 cm).
Their breeding habitat is open wooded areas in western North America. These birds migrate to South America at the end of summer. The female lays two or three eggs in an open cup nest on a horizontal tree branch or within a tree cavity; California black oak forests are examples of suitable nesting habitat for this species of bird. Both parents feed the young.
They often wait on a perch at a middle height in a tree and fly out to catch insects in flight (hawking), and will also hover to pluck insects from... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Calgary | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 3 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 4 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Ciudad Juárez | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 6 | Puebla | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 7 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 8 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 10 | Las Vegas | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Western Wood-Pewee sighting in Badlands National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 88th most-seen of the 120 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Western Wood-Pewee in Badlands National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Western Wood-Pewee sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
44th of 65
Of the 65 parks where we can rate Western Wood-Pewee sightings, Badlands National Park ranks 44th at under 5%. The best odds are in Yosemite National Park (United States, about 40%), Guadalupe Mountains National Park (United States, about 30%) and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (United States, about 20%).
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Western Wood-Pewee that you can see in Badlands National Park (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Say's Phoebe (about 50%), Western Kingbird (about 40%) and Eastern Kingbird (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Western Wood-Pewee is recorded against all the birds logged in Badlands National Park (13 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
