FLYCATCHERS: BLACK PHOEBE 
433 
owls, kingfishers, many of the flycatchers, and various other birds, ejects 
them in the form of pellets. 
Additional Literature.—Henderson, H. N., Bird-Lore, XXVI, 89-94, 1924 
(nesting).— Seton, E. T., Bird-Lore, XXIII, 286-287, 1921 (birds that signal with 
tails).— Warren, E. R., Condor, XXI, 62-65, 1919 (bird notes in stormy May). 
BLACK PHOEBE: Sayornis nigricans semiatra (Vigors) 
Plate 43 
Description. — Length: About 6.2-7 inches, wing 3.5-3.8, tail 3.4-3.7. Adults: 
Sooty slate (blackish on head and breast, brownish on back, scapulars, rump, and 
upper tail coverts), with white outer web of outer tail feather, brownish gray wing 
edgings, abruptly white belly, and while under tail coverts streaked with, dusky. Young: 
Similar to adults but more sooty, wings and feathers of posterior upperparts tipped 
with brownish; bordering white of underparts suffused with brown or rusty. 
Range. —Upper and Lower Sonoran Zones from California and Arizona to 
southern New Mexico and central Texas, south over Mexico (except Gulf coast) 
to Yucatan. 
State Records. —Coming into southwestern New Mexico, the Black Phoebe [is 
fairly commonly distributed, along the water-courses breeding from about 3,500 
to 6,500 feet (Kellogg') ]. It breeds to 6,500 feet on the Mimbres (Bailey); to Red- 
rock on the Gila (Goldman); [a male taken at Redrock on March 25, 1928, was about 
to breed (Kellogg); it was common west of the Rio Grande as far north as Chloride 
and up all the tributaries of the Gila to 6,500 feet (Ligon, 1916-1918)]; and to 
Cooney on the San Francisco River (Barrell). A nest with eggs was found May 18, 
1913, near Chloride at 6,300 feet; two days later a nest with young at about the same 
altitude on the East Gila River. [May 14, 1916, fresh eggs were found at Chloride, 
6,300 feet, and May 25, 1916, young in the nest on Cuchillo Creek at about 5,400 
feet;l and another nest found May 21, at 6,600 feet on Taylor Creek (Ligon). A 
pair nested at Mesilla in 1913—the first time the species had been seen at that locality 
(Merrill)—and it was once taken at Fort Thorn (Henry). It is reported from Silver 
City (Kellogg). 
After the breeding season, two specimens were taken August 8, 1904, at Kingston 
(Metcalfe); and the last were seen, at Chloride, September 12, 1915 (Ligon), and at 
Redrock about October 3, 1908 (Goldman). 
While the majority of the Black Phoebes of the United States migrate into Mexico 
in October and return early in March, a good many winter in the United States even 
in localities where snow occasionally falls, and on the Carlsbad Bird Reserve the 
species was seen several times during January, 1915, and noted during the winter of 
1915-16 (Willett). [One seen January 1, 1920, at the Avalon Dam, 5 miles north of 
Carslbad, at 3,200 feet, was said to have been there all winter (Ligon).] At Ciene- 
quilla, at 6,000 feet, in a canyon and cave country, between February 10 and April 
10, 1904, it was sometimes common (Surber). 
In the spring, at Silver City it was seen in March and April (Hunn); at Cooney 
March 2, 1889; [on Chloride Creek, 6,300 to 6,500 feet, March 27, 1920 (Ligon),] 
and at Carlisle, March 9, 1890 (Barrell).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —A wall pocket made of small pellets of mud mixed with bits of dry grass, 
weeds, moss, or hair, lined with rootlets, strips of bark, vegetable fibers, hair, wool, 
and occasionally feathers, placed in wells and on the sides of buildings and cliffs. 
Eggs: 3 to 6, white, sometimes dotted with reddish brown around the larger end. 
Food. —Almost wholly animal—99.41 per cent; of this useful beetles made up 
2.82 per cent, harmful or neutral beetles, 10.50 per cent; hymenoptera, mainly wild 
