Red eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus)

[order] Passeriformes | [family] Vireonidae | [latin] Vireo olivaceus | [UK] Red-eyed Vireo | [FR] Vireo a oeil rouge | [DE] Rotaugenvireo | [ES] Vireo ojirrojo | [IT] Vireo occhirossi | [NL] Roodoogvireo

Subspecies

Physical charateristics

The Red-eyed Vireo is a small bird, olive-green above and pale yellow and white below. It has no wing-bars. It has a rather flat head with a blue-gray crown, bordered below by three stripes: black, white, and black, with the lowest stripe passing through the eye. Although adults have bright red eyes, the color of the eyes is often difficult to detect in the field. The eyes of juveniles are brown, a color that may persist through the first winter.

Listen to the sound of Red-eyed Vireo

[audio:http://www.aviflevoland.nl/sounddb/R/Red-eyed Vireo.mp3]

Copyright remark: Most sounds derived from xeno-canto

Range

Breeds from southeastern Alaska, Yukon, and British Columbia eastward to Newfoundland, and from Canada southward to Oregon, Idaho, South Dakota, eastern Texas and Florida. Also populations resident in South America. Winters in northern South America in the Amazon Basin.

Habitat

Breeds in deciduous and mixed deciduous forests. More abundant in forest interior. Lives in urban areas and parks with large trees. The breeding habitat is open wooded areas across Canada and the eastern and northwestern United States; the Latin American population occurs in similar habitat and is partly resident all-year.

Reproduction

Like other vireos, Red-eyed Vireos are monogamous. Unlike other Washington vireos, female Red-eyed Vireos build their nests and incubate without assistance from the males. The nest is made of bark, grass, needles, and twigs, lined with soft plant fiber and other material. It is covered on the outside with wasp nest paper and spider webbing. It is a typical vireo nest, suspended by its rim from a horizontally forked twig or the corner of a tree trunk and two radiating branches. Clutch size is typically three to four eggs, and incubation lasts for 11 to 14 days. Both the male and female feed the young for the 10 to 12 days they are in the nest. The female, and perhaps the male, continue to feed the young for up to two weeks after they leave the nest.

Feeding habits

Red-eyed Vireos can be difficult to see because they forage high in the canopy, where they pick food from the undersides of foliage, hopping about or hovering in the leaves. In summer, Red-eyed Vireos feed mostly on adult insects and larvae, especially caterpillars. In late summer and on their wintering grounds, they also eat berries.

Conservation

This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 12,000,000 km². It has a large global population estimated to be 140,000,000 individuals (Rich et al. 2003). Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Migration

Widespread as breeder and/or migrant south to north-cenrtal Argentina, Uruguay, and south Brazil, west of Andes south to northwest Peru and Trinidad. Also breeds North America , passing northern. winter (mainly September-April) primarily in Amazonia. Red-eyed Vireos breeding in southern South America vacate this region during austral winter (mainly April August) and move to Amazonia and southern Venezuela, where other races are resident. The breeding areas and movements of some races are still not well understood.

Distribution map

Literature

Title NEST SITE SELECTION AND NESTING SUCCESS OF THE REDEYED
VIREO IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA

Author(s): ADAM M. SIEPIELSKI, AMANDA D. RODEWALD AND
RICHARD H. YAHNER

Abstract: We compared nest placement and characteristics of ..[more]..

Source: Wilson Bull., 113(3), 2001, pp. 302-307

Title Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus)

Author(s): –

Abstract: Over the past several years, songbirds and the rea..[more]..

Source: –

Title RED-EYED VIREOS HAVE DIFFICULTY RECOGNIZING
INDIVIDUAL NEIGHBORS’ SONGS

Author(s): RENEE GODARD

Abstract: I investigated recognition of individual neighbors..[more]..

Source: The Auk 110(4):857-862, 1993

Title GENETIC EVIDENCE FOR RELATIONSHIPS AMONG
THE RED-EYED, YELLOW-GREEN, AND
CHIVI VIREOS

Author(s): NED K. JOHNSON AND ROBERT M. ZINK

Abstract: One of the most enduring puzzles in the systematic..[more]..

Source: Wilson Bull., 97(4), 1985, pp. 421-435