The Story
This Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens) perched on a slender branch near Capurganá, in Chocó, Colombia, its gray-olive plumage and pale wing bars set against a softly blurred canopy. It breeds in deciduous and mixed woods in eastern North America, and this one was far to the south of that, in Colombia. It looks almost identical to the Western Wood-Pewee, and the two are most easily told apart by their calls. It feeds on insects and other arthropods. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/20 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −0.5 EV. Capurganá can be reached only by boat or small plane, and it has no cars, which keeps the village and its forest edges quiet for birds like this one.
©2025 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Eastern Wood-Pewee (Contopus virens) belongs to the family Tyrannidae (Tyrant Flycatchers) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2021), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List