I open the pantry door and the eastern phoebe flies off the nest. Before eastern phoebes lived so close to humans, they built their nests on cliffs. Every year for 35 years, we’ve had an eastern phoebe nest under the eaves of our back porch. Eastern phoebes have the distinction of being the first bird ever banded, in 1804 by John James Audubon himself. He, too, watched an eastern phoebe nest at his farm in Mill Grove, Pa., about 200 miles east of here as the flycatcher flies.

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Persons: we’ve, phoebe, ”, John James Audubon Locations: phoebes, North America, Virginia, Mill Grove, Pa