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

References

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/
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved August 2016)
Wikipedia

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) White-eyed Vireo. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 19 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/White-eyed_Vireo

External Links

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