Pewee

Not to be confused with magpie larks, often called peewees.

Pewees
File:Contopus sordidulus 1.jpg
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.

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

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.

Taxonomy

The genus Contopus was introduced by the German ornithologist Jean Cabanis in 1855 with Muscicapa virens Linnaeus, the eastern wood pewee, as the type species. The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek words kontos "pole" or "shaft" and pous "foot". A large molecular phylogenetic study of the Tyrannidae that was published in 2020 found that Contopus was sister to the genus Mitrephanes containing the two tufted flycatchers.

The genus contains 16 species:

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
File:Olive-sided Flycatcher.jpg	Contopus cooperi	Olive-sided flycatcher	Canada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States
File:Greater Pewee Reef Townsite CG Carr Canyon Sierra Vista AZ 2017-04-30 10-43-45 (33581995433).jpg	Contopus pertinax	Greater pewee	central and southern Mexico south through Costa Rica and Nicaragua
File:Contopus lugubris.jpg	Contopus lugubris	Dark pewee	Talamancan montane forests of Costa Rica and western Panama.
File:Contopus fumigatus (Atrapamoscas ahumado) (14175076217).jpg	Contopus fumigatus	Smoke-colored pewee	Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela
File:Contopus ochraceus 1902.jpg	Contopus ochraceus	Ochraceous pewee	Costa Rica and western Panama
File:Contopus sordidulus 1.jpg	Contopus sordidulus	Western wood pewee	western North America
File:Eastern Wood-Pewee (8463727496).jpg	Contopus virens	Eastern wood pewee	Central America and in the Andes region of northern South America.
File:Contopus cinereus cinereus - Tropical Pewee; Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil.jpg	Contopus cinereus	Southern tropical pewee	southern Brazil and Paraguay south to Argentina.
File:Tropical Pewee - Rio Tigre - Costa Rica.jpg	Contopus bogotensis	Northern tropical pewee	southeastern Mexico to northern South America from northern Colombia to northeastern Brazil.
File:Tumbes Pewee - South Ecuador S4E9467 (16250963334).jpg	Contopus punensis	Tumbes pewee	western Ecuador and western Peru.
File:White-throated Pewee (Contopus albogularis) (cropped).jpg	Contopus albogularis	White-throated pewee	Brazil, French Guiana, and Suriname.
File:Contopus nigrescens - Blackish pewee.JPG	Contopus nigrescens	Blackish pewee	Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru.
File:Cuban pewee (Contopus caribaeus caribaeus).JPG	Contopus caribaeus	Cuban pewee	Cuba and the northern Bahamas.
File:Hispaniolan Pewee (Contopus hispaniolensis) (8082782665).jpg	Contopus hispaniolensis	Hispaniolan pewee	island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean.
File:Jamaican Pewee (Contopus pallidus) (8082126311).jpg	Contopus pallidus	Jamaican pewee	Jamaica
File:Moucherolle gobemouche.jpg	Contopus latirostris	Lesser Antillean pewee	Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico, and Saint Lucia

External links

• Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• Error creating thumbnail: Data related to Contopus at Wikispecies