Bell's Vireo

Vireo bellii

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family VIREONIDAE

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A small insectivorous bird of the central and southwestern United States and northern Mexico, the Bell's Vireo is drably colored and indistinctly marked. Its distinctive song can be heard coming from the dense vegetation of scrubby woodlands, old fields, or mesquite brushlands.

Cool Facts

• The Bell's Vireo is the most yellow in the easternmost part of its range, and it gets progressively grayer to the west. The "Least" Bell's Vireo of California and northern Baja California is the grayest, with little yellow or green in its plumage.
• A pair of Bell's Vireos may forage together at times during the breeding season, progressing upward in a spiral, gleaning insects from the vegetation.

• The Bell's Vireo has not been observed drinking water. It may be able to obtain all that it needs from its food.

Description

• Size: 11-12 cm (4-5 in)
• Wingspan: 18 cm (7 in)
• Weight: 7-10 g (0.25-0.35 ounces)

• Small songbird.
• Drab gray to greenish above.
• White to yellow below.
• One prominent wingbar and a more faint one above it.
• Faint white eyering.

• Short, rounded wings.
• Relatively long tail.
• Rump olive-green.
• Narrow white eyering connected to dull white streak from eyes to bill.
• Indistinct gray line through eyes.
• Bill grayish black.
• Eyes dark brown.
• Legs and feet dark grayish blue to black.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Juvenile similar to adult, but whiter below and with more distinct wingbars.

Similar Species

• White-eyed Vireo very similar, but is more olive and yellow, has white eyes in the adult, more distinct wingbars, and bright yellow spectacles.
• Hutton's Vireo has broad wingbars, a shorter tail, and a dull gray throat and breast.
• Gray Vireo has longer tail, even more obscure single wingbar, lacks any trace of olive-green or yellow, and continuously raises and flips its tail.

Sound

Song a loud, jerky, unmusical set of phrases, first ending on ascending note, then descending note. "Cheedle-cheedle-cheedle-chee, cheedle-cheedle-cheedle-chew."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from southern California and southern Nevada to central North Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, and Arkansas southward to northern Mexico.

Winter Range

Winters in southern Mexico.

Habitat

Dense, low, shrubby vegetation, generally early successional stages in riparian areas, brushy fields, young second-growth forest or woodland, scrub oak, coastal chaparral, and mesquite brushlands, often near water in arid regions.

Food

Insects and spiders.

Behavior

Foraging

Gleans from leaves, twigs, and branches. Sometimes hovers while feeding.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Open bag-like or basket-like cup of grass, straw-like stems, plant fibers, small skeletonized leaves, paper, and strips of bark fastened with spider silk; lined almost invariably with fine, brown or yellow grass stems. Outside decorated with spider egg cases. Suspended from forks of low branches of small trees or shrubs.

Egg Description

White with sparse spotting.

Clutch Size

3-5 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and naked.

Conservation Status

"Least" Bell's Vireo of California considered endangered, primarily from loss of riparian habitat and cowbird parasitism. Populations declining throughout range.

Other Names

Viréo de Bell (French)
Vireo Aceitunado, Vireo Oliva, Vireo de Bell (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Brown, B. T. 1993. Bell?s Vireo (Vireo bellii). In The Birds of North America, No. 35 (A. Poole, P. Stettenheim, and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, DC: The American Ornithologists? Union.