BIRD SPECIES

Warbling Vireo

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Vireo gilvus

The Warbling Vireo is a small, chunky North American songbird, with thick, straight, and slightly hooked bill. It is medium-sized for vireos, with a fairly round head and a medium-length bill and tail.

Both sexes measure about 4.7 - 5.1 inches in length, with a wingspan of 8.7 inches and weight of 10 - 16 grams.

It is gray-olive above and whitish below, washed on the sides and vent with yellow. It has a dark line through the eye and a white line over the eye. Lores are white in most individual.

Western birds are generally smaller and have darker gray crowns.

CALL: They use many calls, particularly a raspy, descending scold call as well as a low spitting note. Females have a courtship call that they sometimes give in a loose duet with the males

SONG: Males sing a rapid, undulating, highly variable song with a rich, burbling quality lasting about 3 seconds. The song usually concludes with an accented note pitched higher than the preceding melody. 

Primarily feeds on insects in all seasons. They will also eat spiders, snails, fruits, and berries.

Uses open deciduous or mixed forest during the summer breeding season, especially along woodland edges and clearings.

They can also be found in isolated groves of trees in otherwise largely unforested land, such as farmsteads and shelterbelts, riparian areas, and suburban settings.

They winter in open woods in the tropics.

Summers throughout most of the continental United States except for portions of the South, also in much of western Canada.

Winters in Mexico and points south.

Nest is a woven rough, slightly rounded hanging cup, usually suspended from a horizontally forked twig. It is made of plant matter, cobwebs, lichen, animal hair and rarely feathers.

The females usually do most of the building, sometimes stealing material from the nests of neighbors.

She lays 3 - 5 white eggs with a few scattered dots of reddish or dark brown. Incubation period last for about 12 - 14 days by both parents.

SOURCES:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org
https://www.sdakotabirds.com
https://en.wikipedia.org