BIRD SPECIES

White-eyed Vireo

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Vireo griseus

The White-eyed Vireo is a small songbird with yellow spectacles surrounding its white eye.
It is a migratory bird that is more frequently heard than seen.
It is often confused for a warbler due to its secretive habits when foraging, which makes them difficult to see and properly identify.

It is a small songbird with thick, straight and slightly hooked bill.
Both sexes are about 4.3 – 5.1 inches long, with 6.7 wingspan and weight of 10 -14 grams.

Its head and back are grayish olive, and underparts are white with yellow flanks.
Wings and tail are dark, and there are two white wing bars on each wing.
Their eyes have white irises, and are surrounded by yellow spectacles.
Males and females are similar.
Young birds have dark eyes that turn white in their first winter or spring.

CALL: Include a short "zip" and a harsh, nasal "mew" that sounds a bit like a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 
They are also known as mimics, sometimes mimicking the songs and calls of other bird species, which makes identification by voice alone sometimes difficult.
They are capable of an astonishing array of vocalizations.

SONG: A variable and rapid six to seven note phrase, starting and ending with a sharp "chick".

They feed almost exclusively on insects, especially caterpillars, moths, and butterflies during summer.
They will also eat fruits, berries, snails, and small lizards and salamanders.

Uses a variety of shrubby low growth for breeding, including, forest edges, woodland undergrowth, overgrown pastures, and shrubby stream sides.
They also prefer shrubby habitats during migration and in winter.

It breeds in the southeastern United States from New Jersey west to northern Missouri and south to Texas and Florida, and also in eastern Mexico, northern Central America, Cuba and the Bahamas.

Populations on the US Gulf coast and further south are resident, but most North American birds migrate south in winter.

The male and female build a pendulous nest suspendend from a Y-shaped fork.
It is made of leaves, grasses, rootlets, twigs, and other vegetative material, often covered with leaves, mosses, and lichens on the outside, and lined with fine grasses, hair, or rootlets on the inside.
Spiderwebs are used to bind much of the nest together.

The female lays 3 – 5 white eggs with sparse spotting.
Both parents incubate the eggs for about 13 – 15 days.

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