Lioks like a phoebe or wood peewee. Some kind of flycatcher, that much I am certain of, but being as I am in the opposite side of the country, I am mot at all familiar with the eastern species.

After looking into it a little bit more, my vote is eastern phoebe. We do get them here in Colorado, but not terribly common. Our more common Sayornis species is the Say's phoebe, and they very often nest under the eaves of structures, much like this guy.

Thank you soooo much. It had been driving me crazy trying to figure out what this bird is. It is an Eastern Phoebe!! First we have had one of those.

And good news!! Barn swallows are back nesting in the barn. We were so afraid we lost our brood. We love our swallows. Now an eastern phoebe fan. :)

I have phoebes that nest around the outside of my house every summer. Their nests look just like that. I love them. They are very quiet and mannerly. :)

Already eating bugs :). Do they have a good success rate with their broods? Will they come back each year and use the same nest?

Hmmm.....We have pewees around here, but I'm not sure I've ever seen them up close. Seems like they show up a little later in the season. Every time I look outside, I'm seeing the phoebes swooping down and grabbing a bug. It's cool how long they can hover.

Found a dead baby on the deck. Must have fallen out of the nest. All is quite now. :( :( :(. Hopefully there was more than one chick.

My phoebe flycatchers return every spring to the same nest on top of a light on my house. After 20 years, I guess the babies return. I delight in their mating calls to each other ..."feeebeee." I love watching them go after the bugs. They are so welcome here.

Have a sad and good phoebe update. First a dead baby on the deck (I mentioned that in an earlier post) then my husband found the whole nest on the deck with one fledgling hopping around it. The baby was too young to fly and wouldn't have made it very long. So, my husband put the nest back up and put the baby in. The parents came back and were feeding it again. Yea! But two days later, the nest was down again and the baby hasn't been seen since. We left the nest down and the parent birds came back and hung out, even going down to the nest on the deck.

After another two days, the nest has been rebuilt and it appears they are nesting again. I hope this second clutch does better.

Any idea what could have knocked the nest down completely? I appears in a pretty safe place up under the soffit.

I have a Phoebe nest under a deck eave that looks just like yours. Yesterday I found a cowbird egg, smashed, on the deck below the nest. Phoebe's are smart birds!

Lynn.....Did you have a bad storm? Also, I've heard that house wrens can have quite a temper. Another possibility is a gray squirrel or a red squirrel. They can get to almost anything. It's really nice being able to watch baby birds grow......then again, it's heartbreaking when you find them hurt or dead. Such is life/nature, I guess. Good luck with the second nest. Oh........and I love the color of your shingles and gutter! :)

We have been having storms, mostly heavy downpours rather than wind.

I do not have a lot of squirrels this year, possibly coyotes ate them. I do have a lot of wrens.

Several years ago a wren placed a nest in a bird houser that was attached to the house under cover on my back porch. All was well, eggs hatched, and then one day I saw the parents fluttering around. A garder snake was in the nest. It had climbed the wall somehow. My husband eventually got the snake out of the nest with thongs, but it disrupted the nest materials on its way out. The babies were ready to fly, so we hoped they made it out OK. Never really knew. They were gone. The snake did not seem large enough to eat them.

Figures crossed for this next brood.

I guess everything is trying to just survive. It's hard to take sometimes though.

Yes, agreed. Nature is amazing, beautiful, fascinating, brutal, and heartbreaking all at the same time.

That is one of the cutest bird photos I've seen in a long time!

Thank you! I just open an Etsy store (BluebirdsPlus) and this picture gets the most clicks, comments and likes. I have taken hundreds of bluebird pictures over the years (I have been published in Birds & Blooms and other magazines), but this is definitely my favorite too!

Here is a springtime bluebird photo (I'm blest to have bluebirds in my yard year round!) and here is the link to my web page: Bluebirds Plus

Love to hear that people are using Etsy. I think it's a great idea and I try to get over there when I'm looking for something. I love people who have skills in crafting and other abilities that can actually produce products that people are looking for and enjoying. Good luck with your endeavor. And you are definitely blessed - I have never seen more than a single bluebird over the years. All the suburban yards I've ever lived in have never had them. And they are one of my favorites.

You are definitely lucky to have so many blue birds at your home. You are also an excellent photographer. Great pictures!!!

We have a couple of blue birds house spread around the property but only one nesting pair at a time. One year we had a male without a mate who would sit on the house singing and flapping trying to attract a mate, but never did. He would attack his reflection in our vehicles' mirrors and bumpers. I felt sorry for him.

They are here every spring, but I never seem to see them in the winter.