Black Phoebe
Sayornis nigricans
Black Phoebe · San Diego · 6 March 2026
A Black Phoebe beside a San Diego pond, which is where it lives: a flycatcher of streamsides and garden water across the Southwest, Mexico and down into South America, and one that essentially never reaches the East Coast. It sits on a low perch over the water and sallies out for insects.
Sooty black above and on the breast, with a clean white belly. Unusually for a songbird it builds its nest of mud, plastered under a bridge or an eave, which is why it has taken to towns so well - a culvert is as good as a cliff.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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