The Western Wood-Pewee is a small, nondescript, gray bird with
two lighter wing-bars and no eye-ring. It has a whitish throat,
dark bill, and slight crest. Western Wood-Pewees use a variety
of habitats, including open coniferous forests, wooded streams,
and forest edges. These active foragers concentrate in the sub-
canopy layer, flying out from an exposed perch to grab prey in
mid-air, and then returning to the perch. They also hover beside
foliage, gleaning prey from the surface of leaves and twigs.
Flying insects are the predominant prey. The male sings to
defend a nesting territory and attract a mate. The female builds
the nest on a horizontal branch, usually well out from the
trunk. The nest is a compact cup of grass, plant fiber,
feathers, and hair in a spider-web frame, at varying heights
from the ground. The outside of the nest is camouflaged with
moss, bud scales, leaves, and lichen, and often looks like a
bump or knot on the branch. Typically, clutches are three eggs,
but can be from two to four eggs