Pewee

The pewees are a genus, Contopus, of small to medium-sized insect-eating birds in the Tyrant flycatcher family Tyrannidae.

Pewees
Western wood pewee (Contopus sordidulus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Tyrannidae
Genus:	Contopus Cabanis, 1855
Type species
Muscicapa virens Linnaeus, 1766
Species
See text.

These birds are known as pewees, from the call of one of the more common members of this vocal group. They are generally charcoal-grey birds with wing bars that live in wooded areas.

The genus Contopus was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1855 with the eastern wood pewee as the type species.[1] The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek words kontos "pole" or "shaft" and pous "foot".[2]

The genus contains 15 species:[3]

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Contopus cooperi	Olive-sided flycatcher	Canada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States
	Contopus pertinax	Greater pewee	central and southern Mexico south through Costa Rica and Nicaragua
	Contopus lugubris	Dark pewee	Talamancan montane forests of Costa Rica and western Panama.
	Contopus fumigatus	Smoke-colored pewee	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela
	Contopus ochraceus	Ochraceous pewee	Costa Rica and western Panama
	Contopus sordidulus	Western wood pewee	western North America
	Contopus virens	Eastern wood pewee	Central America and in the Andes region of northern South America.
	Contopus cinereus	Tropical pewee	southern Mexico and Trinidad south to Bolivia and Argentina.
	Contopus punensis	Tumbes pewee	western Ecuador and western Peru.
	Contopus albogularis	White-throated pewee	Brazil, French Guiana, and Suriname.
	Contopus nigrescens	Blackish pewee	Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru.
	Contopus caribaeus	Cuban pewee	Cuba and the northern Bahamas.
	Contopus hispaniolensis	Hispaniolan pewee	island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean.
	Contopus pallidus	Jamaican pewee	Jamaica
	Contopus latirostris	Lesser Antillean pewee	Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico, and Saint Lucia