Bell's Vireo

Photo by Stanley Jones
Brewster County, Texas, May, 2014

Eastern subspecies V. b. bellii
Photo by jmorlan
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, USA, October 2005

Vireo bellii

Identification

12-13 cm

• Dull olive-grey above
• Whitish below
• Faint white eye ring and wing bars
• Olive green rump
• Grey-black bill
• Brown eyes
• Dark grey-blue-black legs
  

Sexes alike

Distribution

Western United States and northern Mexico; winters from Mexico south to Nicaragua. Accidental vagrant to eastern United States.

Taxonomy

Subspecies^[1]

Polytypic. Consists of four subspecies.

• V. b. medius:

• South-western Texas to southern Durango and southern Coahuila; winters to Oaxaca

• V. b. bellii:

• Central and southern US; winters from southern Mexico to northern Nicaragua

• V. b. arizonae (Arizona):

• South-western US; winters from Baja and central Sonora to Colima

• V. b. pusillus (Least):

• Arid southern California; winters to southern Baja

Habitat

Arid scrubland areas.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes insects and spiders.

Breeding

It makes a well-camouflaged basket-like cup nest from grass, straw-like stems, plant fibres, small skeletonized leaves, paper, and strips of bark fastened with spider silk;it is lined with fine, brown or yellow grass stems. Outside it is decorated with spider egg cases. 3-5 white with sparse spotting eggs are laid.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Wikipedia
3. BirdForum Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Bell's Vireo. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 17 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Bell%27s_Vireo

External Links

Search for photos of Bell's Vireo in the gallery