Greater Pewee

A Greater Pewee was seen by Marty and company on the Nature Walk of 12/28/2016. There was much rejoicing.

Photo by Marty Horowitz 12/28/2016

Jean Hengesbaugh writes:

Mark and I have seen Greater Pewee several times on Mt. Lemmon and the Huachuhua mountains. They are normally summer resident in southern AZ. They like pine forests and shaded canyons.

Fred Heath writes:

Although the Greater Pewee breeds in the higher elevations (5500 to 8400 feet per the AZ Breeding Bird Atlas) of our local mountains, arriving in late March or early April and leaving by the end of September when they head to Mexico, they are very rare in the lower elevations both as a transient or winter visitor. In fact, they are considered rarer than rare at this time of year per the Tucson Audubon’s “Finding Birds in SE AZ”. The category is called “Casual” (When I hear that term I always think of the bird lounging around in a T-shirt and jeans) which is defined as “Does not occur annually and cannot expected to be seen.” Rare is defined as “Present in very small numbers, occurs annually but easily missed.”
Whatever we call it, when ace birder, Will Russel, tells me he has never seen one before in Sabino I know I don’t take that casually…

Thanks, Marty, Jean, and Fred, for this casual pewee story!