Red-eyed Vireo
Encyclopedia
The Red-eyed Vireo, Vireo olivaceus, is a small American
songbird
, 13–14 cm in length. It is somewhat warbler
-like but not closely related to the New World warbler
s (Parulidae). Common across its vast range, this species
is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
(though this is faint in some populations).
This bird, not always seen, may sing for long periods of time; it appears to be endlessly repeating the same question and answer. It holds the record for most songs given in a single day among bird species. More than 20,000 songs in one day.
The subspecies
breeding in South America
have a simpler song, a chestnut
iris, and different remiges proportions. They are sometimes split as the Chivi Vireo, V. chivi. Some of the races concerned are V. o. chivi, V. o. vividior, and V. o. tobagoensis, the last being a relatively large subspecies endemic
to Tobago
. Even within the Chivi Vireo, there are distinct variations in measurements, song and ecology, but the possible taxonomic significance of this remains unclear.
In the past, the Yellow-green Vireo
(V. flavoviridis) and the Noronha Vireo
(V. gracilirostris) have been considered as subspecies of the Red-eyed Vireo.
The breeding habitat is open wooded areas across Canada
and the eastern and northwestern United States
. These birds migrate
to South America, where they spend the winter. The Latin America
n population occur in virtually any wooded habitat in their range. Most of these are residents, but the populations breeding in the far southern part of this species' range (e.g. most of its range in Argentina
, Uruguay
, Paraguay
and Bolivia
) migrate north as far as Central America
.
This vireo
is one of the more frequent American passerine
vagrants to western Europe
, with more than one hundred records, mainly in Ireland
and Great Britain
. In northern Ohio
, it seems to return to breed at about the same time as one century ago; but it may leave for winter quarters one or two weeks earlier at present than it did in the past.
Red-eyed Vireos glean
insect
s from tree foliage, favouring caterpillar
s and aphid
s and sometimes hovering while foraging. In some tropical regions, they are commonly seen to attend mixed-species feeding flock
s, moving through the forest higher up in the trees than the bulk of such flocks.
They also eat berries, especially before migration, and in the winter quarters, where trees bearing popular fruit like Tamanqueiro (Alchornea glandulosa) or Gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba) will even attract them to parks and gardens. Fruit are typically not picked up from a hover, but the birds often quite acrobatically reach for them, even hanging upside down.
The nest is a cup in a fork of a tree branch. The Red-eyed Vireo suffers from nest parasitism
by the Brown-headed Cowbird
(Molothrus ater) in the north of its range, and by the Shiny Cowbird
(M. bonariensis) further south. Parasitism
by Haemoproteus
and trypanosoma
ns might affect these birds not infrequently, as was noted in studies of birds caught in Parque Nacional de La Macarena and near Turbo
(Colombia
): though only three Red-eyed Vireos were examined, all were infected with at least one of these parasites.
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
songbird
Songbird
A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds . Another name that is sometimes seen as scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin oscen, "a songbird"...
, 13–14 cm in length. It is somewhat warbler
Warbler
There are a number of Passeriformes called "warblers". They are not particularly closely related, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal and insectivorous....
-like but not closely related to the New World warbler
New World warbler
The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds restricted to the New World. They are not related to the Old World warblers or the Australian warblers....
s (Parulidae). Common across its vast range, this species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
is not considered threatened by the IUCN.
Description and systematics
Adults are mainly olive-green on the upperparts with white underparts; they have a red iris and a grey crown edged with black. There is a dark blackish line through the eyes and a wide white stripe just above that line. They have thick blue-grey legs and a stout bill. They are yellowish on the flanks and undertail covertsCovert (feather)
A covert feather on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts, which as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail.- Wing-coverts :...
(though this is faint in some populations).
This bird, not always seen, may sing for long periods of time; it appears to be endlessly repeating the same question and answer. It holds the record for most songs given in a single day among bird species. More than 20,000 songs in one day.
The subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
breeding in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
have a simpler song, a chestnut
Chestnut (color)
Chestnut, also known as Indian red, is a color, a medium brownish shade of red, and is named after the nut of the chestnut tree.As Indian red, it is named after the red laterite soil found in India. It is thus an earth tone as well as a red. It is composed of naturally occurring iron oxides. Other...
iris, and different remiges proportions. They are sometimes split as the Chivi Vireo, V. chivi. Some of the races concerned are V. o. chivi, V. o. vividior, and V. o. tobagoensis, the last being a relatively large subspecies endemic
Endemism in birds
An endemic bird area is a region of the world that contains two or more restricted-range species, while a "secondary area" contains one or more restricted-range species. Both terms were devised by Birdlife International....
to Tobago
Tobago
Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada. The island lies outside the hurricane belt...
. Even within the Chivi Vireo, there are distinct variations in measurements, song and ecology, but the possible taxonomic significance of this remains unclear.
In the past, the Yellow-green Vireo
Yellow-green Vireo
The Yellow-green Vireo, Vireo flavoviridis, is a small passerine bird. It breeds from southern Texas in the United States and the western and eastern mountain ranges of northern Mexico south to central Panama...
(V. flavoviridis) and the Noronha Vireo
Noronha Vireo
The Noronha Vireo is a species of bird in the Vireonidae family. It is endemic to the island of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil. It is found in woodland, shrubland and gardens. It resembles the Chivi Vireo, but its plumage is significantly duller and the bill longer.-References:* BirdLife...
(V. gracilirostris) have been considered as subspecies of the Red-eyed Vireo.
Ecology
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the eastern and northwestern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. These birds migrate
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
to South America, where they spend the winter. The Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n population occur in virtually any wooded habitat in their range. Most of these are residents, but the populations breeding in the far southern part of this species' range (e.g. most of its range in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
and Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
) migrate north as far as Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
.
This vireo
Vireo
The vireos are a group of small to medium-sized passerine birds restricted to the New World. They are typically dull-plumaged and greenish in color, the smaller species resembling wood warblers apart from their heavier bills...
is one of the more frequent American passerine
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
vagrants to western Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, with more than one hundred records, mainly in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
. In northern Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, it seems to return to breed at about the same time as one century ago; but it may leave for winter quarters one or two weeks earlier at present than it did in the past.
Red-eyed Vireos glean
Gleaning (birds)
Gleaning is a term for a feeding strategy by birds in which they catch invertebrate prey, mainly arthropods, by plucking them from foliage or the ground, from crevices such as rock faces and under the eaves of houses, or even, as in the case of ticks and lice, from living animals. This behavior is...
insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s from tree foliage, favouring caterpillar
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
s and aphid
Aphid
Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies or whiteflies, are small sap sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions...
s and sometimes hovering while foraging. In some tropical regions, they are commonly seen to attend mixed-species feeding flock
Mixed-species feeding flock
A mixed-species feeding flock, also termed a mixed-species foraging flock, mixed hunting party or informally bird wave, is a flock of usually insectivorous birds of different species, that join each other and move together while foraging...
s, moving through the forest higher up in the trees than the bulk of such flocks.
They also eat berries, especially before migration, and in the winter quarters, where trees bearing popular fruit like Tamanqueiro (Alchornea glandulosa) or Gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba) will even attract them to parks and gardens. Fruit are typically not picked up from a hover, but the birds often quite acrobatically reach for them, even hanging upside down.
The nest is a cup in a fork of a tree branch. The Red-eyed Vireo suffers from nest parasitism
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
by the Brown-headed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
The Brown-headed Cowbird is a small brood parasitic icterid of temperate to subtropical North America. They are permanent residents in the southern parts of their range; northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico in winter, returning to their summer habitat around March or...
(Molothrus ater) in the north of its range, and by the Shiny Cowbird
Shiny Cowbird
The Shiny Cowbird, Molothrus bonariensis, is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in most of South America apart from the most dense jungles, mountains and deserts , the coldest southernmost regions , and on Trinidad and Tobago...
(M. bonariensis) further south. Parasitism
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
by Haemoproteus
Haemoproteus
Haemoproteus is a genus of protozoa that are parasitic in birds, reptiles and amphibians. Its name is derived from Greek: Haima - blood and Proteus - a sea god who had the power of assuming different shapes. The name Haemoproteus was first used in the description of Haemoproteus columbae in the...
and trypanosoma
Trypanosoma
Trypanosoma is a genus of kinetoplastids , a monophyletic group of unicellular parasitic flagellate protozoa. The name is derived from the Greek trypano and soma because of their corkscrew-like motion. All trypanosomes are heteroxenous and are transmitted via a vector...
ns might affect these birds not infrequently, as was noted in studies of birds caught in Parque Nacional de La Macarena and near Turbo
Turbo, Colombia
Turbo is a port town in Antioquia Department, Colombia. It is located at around . It is located on the coast of Gulf of Urabá, 340 km. north from Medellín...
(Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
): though only three Red-eyed Vireos were examined, all were infected with at least one of these parasites.
External links
- Red-eyed Vireo - Vireo olivaceous - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Red-eyed Vireo Species Account - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Red-eyed Vireo Information and Photos - South Dakota Birds and Birding
- Stamps (for Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesSaint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, namely in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean....
, VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
) with RangeMap - Red-eyed Vireo videos - on the Internet Bird Collection
- Red-eyed Vireo photo gallery VIREO Photo-High Res--(Close-up)
- Avibase
- Red-eyed Vireo Bird Sound