Eastern Phoebe Eating an Insect

It looks like this Eastern Phoebe has caught a meal. Could it be a wasp? Although phoebes are tyrant flycatchers, I'm pretty sure they'll eat most insects including the hymenopterans. I think I see:

  • A little bit of striping on the thorax, suggesting 1 of many bees/wasps or their mimics.
  • An insect a little longer than a honeybee or bumblebee.
This was the 2nd year in a row that I got a picture of a phoebe with food in its mouth. While we (correctly) think of phoebes as birds posing no threat to us, to many insects they are giant, ferocious predators.

The Eastern Phoebe is almost certainly the tyrant flycatcher species I encounter the most, though Eastern Kingbirds and Great Crested Flycatchers aren't too hard to find either.

May 18, 2023 at Willowwood Arboretum
Photo 292812711, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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