White-eyed Vireo

Vireo griseus

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 and secretive bird of shrubby areas of the eastern and southern United States, the White-eyed Vireo is more noticeable for its explosive song than its looks.

Cool Facts

• Both the male and the female White-eyed Vireo sing their primary song on the wintering grounds.
• The only fossil record in North America for the entire family Vireonidae is a wing bone of a White-eyed Vireo from the late Pleistocene of Florida, from approximately 400,000 years ago.

• The White-eyed Vireo bathes by rubbing against wet foliage.

Description

• Size: 11-13 cm (4-5 in)
• Wingspan: 17 cm (7 in)
• Weight: 10-14 g (0.35-0.49 ounces)

• Small songbird.
• Olive-green upperparts.
• Yellow sides.
• Yellow spectacles.
• White throat.
• Two white wingbars.
• Eyes white.

• Neck grayish.
• Whitish chest and belly.
• Greenish gray to yellowish under tail.
• Brown line between bill and eyes.
• Bill shiny black, sometimes edged with yellow.
• Upper bill hooked downward at tip.
• Legs bluish gray.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Immature similar to adult, but with brown eyes.

Similar Species

• Bell's Vireo very similar, but is grayer overall, has dark eyes, more indistinct wingbars, and lacks bright yellow spectacles.
• Blue-headed Vireo has dark eyes, white spectacles, and a dark gray head.

Sound

Song loud, short, rapid, and harsh, with sharp chips at beginning and end. Calls a short "zip" and a harsh "mew."

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from Iowa to very southern Ontario and Connecticut, southward to Florida and Mexico.

Winter Range

Winters in southern United States and southward to northern Central America and the Caribbean.

Habitat

Found in deciduous scrub, overgrown pastures, old fields, wood margins, streamside thickets, and mangroves.

Food

Insects, some fruit.

Behavior

Foraging

Forages deliberately with short hops or flights, pausing to look for insects by tilting its head and peering. Gleans insects by picking, hovering, reaching, lunging, hanging, or leaping.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Nest an open cup suspended by rim from fork of small branch in tree. Made of leaves, bark, plant fibers, rootlets, or bits of paper, held together with insect silk and spider webbing, and decorated on outside with lichens, moss, or leaves. Lined with rootlets, fine grass, or hair. Placed low to ground.

Egg Description

White with sparse spotting.

Clutch Size

Usually 4 eggs. Range: 3-5.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless and naked.

Conservation Status

Common. Populations appear stable.

Other Names

Vireo aux yeux blancs (French)
Vireo ojiblanco (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Hopp, S. L., A. Kirby, and C. A. Boone. 1995. White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus). In The Birds of North America, No. 168 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists? Union, Washington, D.C.