General

Black Phoebe: Medium-sized flycatcher with mostly black body and white belly. Outer tail feathers and undertail coverts are white. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has subtle brown scales on back.

Range and Habitat

Black Phoebe: Resident in northern California and southwestern U.S.; also occurs in the tropics. Preferred habitats include shady areas near water, streams, ponds, and lakes; occurs in city parks and open chaparral in winter.

Breeding and Nesting

Black Phoebe: Three to six white eggs, sometimes with red brown spots, are laid in a mud, moss, and grass nest lined with soft material, often feathers or cow hair, and built under a bridge, on a sheltered ledge, in a crevice, in an old building, or in hanging roots near the top of an embankment close to water. Incubation ranges from 15 to 17 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Black Phoebe: Hunts for food from a low, shaded perch where it watches for insects and swoops down to catch them in mid-air. Occasionally snatches food from the water's surface, ground, or vegetation; also eats small fish caught at the water's surface. Coughs up indigestible insect parts in the form of pellets.

Readily Eats

Meal Worms

Vocalization

Black Phoebe: Song is a thin, buzzing "pi-tsee", usually repeated. Call is a sharp, down-slurred "chip."

Similar Species

Black Phoebe: Eastern Phoebe has olive-gray sides and breast; gray-brown upperparts, and white underparts. Eastern Kingbird is larger, has black head, gray-black upperparts, and white underparts.