Eastern Phoebe
Sayornis phoebe
Eastern Phoebe · Everglades National Park · 6 February 2026
An Eastern Phoebe on a bare perch in the Everglades in February, empty-billed and watching. Phoebes breed across the East and Canada, near water and under bridges, and winter in the southern states; the ones in Florida in February will be back in New York by March.
Phoebes hunt from a fixed perch, sallying out after passing insects and returning to the same twig, and the constant dipping of the tail while they sit is the mark that identifies one at a distance. The first bird ever banded in North America was a phoebe, a silver thread tied round the leg by John James Audubon in 1804 to see if the same birds came back to the same nest. They did.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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