Contopus virens
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The eastern wood pewee (Contopus virens) is a small tyrant flycatcher from North, Central and South America. This bird and the western wood pewee (C. sordidulus) were formerly considered a single species. The two species are virtually identical in appearance, and can be distinguished most easily by their calls.
In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the eastern wood pewee in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in the Carolinas. He used the French name Le gobe-mouche cendré de la Coroline and the Latin Muscicapa Carolinensis cinerea. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the eastern wood pewee. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Muscicapa virens and cited Brisson's work. The specific name virens is Latin for "green". This species is now placed in the genus Contopus that was introduced... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bogota | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 2 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Baltimore | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Chicago | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 8 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 10 | Minneapolis [Saint Paul] | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Wood-Pewee sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 958 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 35th most-seen of the 173 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report an Eastern Wood-Pewee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in November to April, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Eastern 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.
8th of 72
Of the 72 parks where we can rate Eastern Wood-Pewee sightings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranks 8th at about 20%. The best odds are in Shenandoah National Park (United States, about 40%), Point Pelee National Park (Canada, about 30%) and Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (Costa Rica, about 30%).
Same family: Tyrannidae
The closest relatives of the Eastern Wood-Pewee that you can see in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (family Tyrannidae, Tyrant Flycatchers) are Eastern Phoebe (about 50%), Acadian Flycatcher (about 10%) and Great Crested Flycatcher (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Eastern Wood-Pewee is recorded against all the birds logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (958 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.
