FLYCATCHERS: SAY PHOEBE 
429 
General Habits. —The Phoebe, the familiar piazza builder of the 
east, as I have previously said, is “hardly a bird that one would look for 
in the arid plains region of New Mexico, but in the canyons breaking 
down from the plains to the Pecos River exist conditions that are far 
from those of arid plains. Near Santa Rosa, from our juniper and cactus 
covered camp ground, we climbed down into one of these box canyons 
that boasted numerous water pools, fresh green cottonwoods, willows, 
woodbine, grapevines, and one patch of cat-tails, in which a warbler that 
we took for a female Yellow-throat hid away at our approach. Here, in a 
niche of rock over a water pool, we found a pair of Phoebes feeding young 
in the nest on May 29, and the brooding bird was so tame that she let us 
photograph her at a distance of ten feet, so that her light chin shows to 
advantage. Her mate meanwhile called phoc-be from a tree near by, 
dishing his tail and sweeping out after insects as if in New England. 
“ Other Phoebes were seen about the same time in the vicinity. One, 
which was apparently catching insects for its young, was seen around 
one of the deep pools on the outskirts of Santa Rosa. The conditions in 
these places are so favorable that it would indeed seem strange if 
wanderers through the region were not occasionally tempted to stop” 
(1904c, pp. 392-393). 
SAY PHOEBE: Sayornis sayus (Bonaparte) 
Plate 62 
Description. — Length: 7.5-8 inches, wing 3.9-4.2, tail 3.3-3.7. Bill narrow, 
rictal bristles moderate. Adults: Uppcrparts plain brownish gray, crown and hind- 
neck darker, upper tail coverts dark gray, usually margined with paler; tail brownish 
black, outside feathers more or less distinctly edged with whitish; wings brownish 
gray with pale edgings; throat, chest , and sides of breast buffy brownish gray, median 
part of chest more strongly tinged with buff; rest of underparts cinnamon-buff. 
Young: Similar to adults, but upperparts browner, and wings with two buffy or 
brownish bands. 
Range. —Breeds from central Alaska, northwestern Mackenzie, northeastern 
Alberta, southeastern Saskatchewan, and central North Dakota south to western 
Kansas, southern New Mexico, Arizona, and Lower California; winters from central 
California, southern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and central Texas south to 
Vera Cruz, Puebla, and Lower California. 
State Records. —Few birds of New Mexico are more common and widely 
distributed than the Say Phoebe. [Common all over the State in open country, 
especially in the Pecos Valley (1924), up to 7,000 feet (Ligon, 1916); in northern 
Santa Fe County up to 7,500 feet (Jensen, 1923); and in the Sangre de Cristos 
around habitations in the canyons to about 7,600 feet (Ligon, 1919).] It has taken 
kindly to the presence of man and is found in the towns and cities to a much greater 
extent than its eastern representative, the common Phoebe. At the same time it 
also nests out in the desert far from any human habitation. It breeds from 3,800 
feet, Mesilla (Merrill); 4,000 feet at Fort Thorn (Henry); [4,000 feet in the vicinity 
of Carlsbad (Ligon, 1916)]; 4,200 feet at Doming and Lordsburg (Bailey); [6,200 
feet at Chloride, May 14, 1916; 7,000 feet, Valley Ranch on Pecos River, July 
9, 1919 (Ligon)]; up to 8,000 feet at Agua Fria Spring in the Zuni Mountains 
(Hollister); and to the same altitude in Hondo Canyon and at Questa. It has 
