wood pewee

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   either of two small North American flycatchers of the genus Contopus, especially the eastern wood pewee (C. virens)

   The plaintive song of a wood pewee drifted through the forest canopy.

A compound of wood, referring to its woodland habitat, and pewee. Pewee is imitative of the bird's characteristic pee-a-wee call and has named American flycatchers since the late eighteenth century. The term covers the eastern species Contopus virens and its western relative C. sordidulus.

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