White-eyed Vireo - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by HelenB
Location: Boy Scout Woods, High Island, Texas, April 2009

Vireo griseus

Identification

10·7–13·0 cm (4¼-5 in)

• Yellowis-grey head
• Olive upperparts
• White underparts
• Yellow flanks
• Dark wings

• 2 white wing bars
• Yellowish-olive primaries
• tertials edged white

Juvenile
Photo © by mali
Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, USA, 2016

• Thick bill with hooked upper mandible
• White eye
• Yellow spectacles
• Dusky lores
• Bluish-grey legs

Sexes similar

Juveniles - dark eyes and more yellow beneath.

Distribution

Southeastern USA from New Jersey west to northern Missouri, south to Texas and Florida, eastern Mexico, northern Central America, Cuba and the Bahamas. Populations on the US Gulf coast and further south are resident, but most North American birds migrate south in winter.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 6 subspecies^[1]:

• V. g. noveboracensis: larger and has more brightly coloured plumage than all other subspecies

• Central and eastern US; winters to Bahamas, northern Nicaragua and Cuba

• V. g. griseus: slightly smaller and duller coloured

• South East US; winters to eastern Mexico, northern Honduras and western Cuba

• V. g. maynardi: greyer above and whiter below

• Coastal and insular Florida

• V. g. bermudianus: shorter wings and a duller plumage

• Bermuda

• V. g. micrus: similar to a smaller maynardi

• South Texas to eastern Mexico (south to Puebla and extreme northern Veracruz)

• V. g. perquisitor:

• East Mexico (north-eastern Puebla and north-central Veracruz)

Habitat

Bushes and shrubs in abandoned cultivation or overgrown pastures.

Behaviour

Diet

Their diet consists mostly of insects, moths and butterflies, also caterpillars. They feed on berries during the winter months.

Breeding

Monogomous. The nest is cup shaped, lined with grass and attached to a fork in a tree branch by spider webs. The clutch consists of 3-5 dark-spotted white eggs. Both adults incubate the eggs for 12-16 days. The young leave the nest 9-11 days after hatching.

Vocalisation

Song

Recording © by NJLarsen, Carolina Sandhills NWR, South Carolina, USA, 29 April 2023

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved August 2016)
3. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) White-eyed Vireo. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 23 November 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/White-eyed_Vireo

External Links

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