Vireo (genus)

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Vireo
Chivi Vireo, Carlsen Field, Trinidad (34888074290).jpg
Chivi vireo (Vireo chivi)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Vireonidae
Genus: Vireo
Vieillot, 1808
Type species
Muscicapa novaeboracensis [1] = Tanagra grisea
Boddaert, 1783
Species

See text

Vireo is a genus of small passerine birds restricted to the New World. Vireos typically have dull greenish plumage (hence the name, from Latin virere, "to be green"), but some are brown or gray on the back and some have bright yellow underparts. They resemble wood warblers apart from their slightly larger size and heavier bills, [2] which in most species have a very small hook at the tip. [3] The legs are stout. [2]

Contents

Most species fall into two plumage groups: one with wing bars and yellow or white eye rings, and one with unmarked wings and eye stripes; however, the Chocó vireo has both wing bars and eye stripes. [3]

Sexes are alike in all species except for the black-capped vireo, in which the male's crown is black and the female's is gray. [3]

Taxonomy

The genus Vireo was introduced in 1808 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. [4] The type species was subsequently designated as the white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus) by German ornithologist Hans Friedrich Gadow in 1883. [5] [6] The word vireo was used by Latin authors for a small, green, migratory bird, probably a Eurasian golden oriole, but a European greenfinch has also been suggested. [7]

Feeding

All members of the genus mostly eat insects and other arthropods, but also eat some fruit. [3] A common pattern is arthropods in summer and fruit in winter. [2] Vireos take prey from leaves and branches and in midair, and the gray vireo takes 5% of its prey from the ground. [3]

Range and territorial behavior

Most species are found in Central America and northern South America. Thirteen species occur farther north, in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda; [8] of these, all but Hutton's vireo are migratory. Vireos seldom fly long distances except in migration. [3]

The resident species occur in pairs or family groups that maintain territories all year (except Hutton's vireo, which joins mixed feeding flocks). Most of the migrants defend winter territories against conspecifics. The exceptions are the complex comprising the red-eyed vireo, the yellow-green vireo, the black-whiskered vireo, and the Yucatan vireo, which winter in small, wandering flocks. [3]

Voice and breeding

Males of most species are persistent singers. Songs are usually rather simple, ranging from monotonous, in some species of the Caribbean littoral and islands, to elaborate and pleasant to human ears in the Chocó vireo. [3] Calls often include "scolding chatters and mews". [2]

Blue-headed vireo SolitaryVireo23.jpg
Blue-headed vireo

The species whose nests are known all build a cup-shaped nest that hangs from branches. Its outer layer is made of coarse leaf and bark strips or of moss, depending on the species; in either case, the material is bound with spider silk and ornamented with spider egg cases. The lining is made of fine grass stems neatly circling the cup. In most species, both sexes work on the nest, but the female adds the lining. In the red-eyed, black-whiskered, Yucatan, and Philadelphia vireos, the male does not help, instead singing and accompanying the female while she builds the nest. The female does most of the incubation, spelled by the male except in the red-eyed vireo complex. [3]

The eggs are whitish; all but the black-capped and dwarf vireos have sparse, fine brown or red-brown spots at the wide end. [2] [3] Tropical species lay two, while temperate-zone species lay four or five. Incubation lasts 11 to 13 days, and the young fledge after the same amount of time. Both sexes feed the nestlings arthropods, and each fledgeling is fed by one parent or the other (not both) for as long as 20 days. [3]

Species

The genus contains 34 species: [9]

GroupImageScientific nameCommon NameDistribution
The "hypochryseus" group Golden Vireo.jpg Golden vireo Vireo hypochryseusMexico
The "olivaceous" group Yellow-green Vireo - Carara - Costa Rica S4E0062 (26670622936).jpg Yellow-green vireo Vireo flavoviridissouthern Texas, Mexico (the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental—also the Cordillera Neovolcanica) south to central Panama
Red-eyed Vireo (8577463371).jpg Red-eyed vireo Vireo olivaceusCanada and the eastern and northwestern United States, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia
Yucatan Vireo (6842666740).jpg Yucatan vireo Vireo magisterBelize, Honduras, Mexico
Vireo altiloquus Martinique.jpg Black-whiskered vireo Vireo altiloquussouthern Florida, USA, and the West Indies as far south as the offshore islands of Venezuela
Vireo chivi, Vale do Ribeira, Registro, Sao Paolo, Brasil.jpg Chivi vireo Vireo chivinortheastern Colombia, into Venezuela and the entirety of the Guianas into eastern Brazil
Vireo gracilirostris - Noronha vireo.jpg Noronha vireo Vireo gracilirostrisFernando de Noronha, Brazil
The "gilvus" group Tepui vireo Vireo sclateriwestern Guyana and northern Brazil
Philadelphia Vireo (14067191614).jpg Philadelphia vireo Vireo philadelphicusCanada to Central America
Warbling Vireo 0800vv.jpg Warbling vireo Vireo gilvusAlaska to Mexico and the Florida Panhandle
Brown-capped Vireo - South Ecuador S4E8717 (22991156292).jpg Brown-capped vireo Vireo leucophrysSouthern Mexico south to northwestern Bolivia
The "eye-ringed" group Hutton's Vireo 4842.jpg Hutton's vireo Vireo huttonisouthern British Columbia in Canada to central Guatemala in Central America
Vireo vicinior.jpg Gray vireo Vireo viciniorsouthwestern United States and northern Baja California to western Texas
Yellow-throated Vireo by Dan Pancamo 1.jpg Yellow-throated vireo Vireo flavifronssouthern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America
Yellow-winged Vireo (Vireo carmioli) (5772476424) (cropped).jpg Yellow-winged vireo Vireo carmioliCosta Rica and western Panama
Vireo masteri 17620880 (cropped).jpg Choco vireo Vireo masteriwestern Colombia and north-west Ecuador
Vireo solitarius Sam Smith Park Toronto.jpg Blue-headed vireo Vireo solitariusCanada and northern United States
Cassin's Vireo Las Cruces.jpg Cassin's vireo Vireo cassiniisouthern British Columbia in Canada through the western coastal states of the United States.
Plumbeous Vireo DSC 8172vv.jpg Plumbeous vireo Vireo plumbeussoutheastern Montana and western South Dakota south to the Pacific coast of Mexico
Blue Mountain Vireo (Vireo osburni) (6499241641).jpg Blue Mountain vireo Vireo osburniJamaica
Vireo nanus imported from iNaturalist photo 58199583 on 3 April 2021.jpg Flat-billed vireo Vireo nanusHispaniola
Vireo pallens.jpg Mangrove vireo Vireo pallensBelize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua
Providencia Vireo imported from iNaturalist photo 14639954 on 29 February 2024.jpg Providencia vireo Vireo approximansIsla de Providencia
Vireo bairdi 264382156.jpg Cozumel vireo Vireo bairdiMexico
San Andres Vireo (Vireo caribaeus) (cropped).jpg San Andres vireo Vireo caribaeusislands of St. Andrew (or San Andrés) and Providencia
Edit white-eyed vireo blandair 4.20.20 DSC 0224.jpg White-eyed vireo Vireo griseuseastern United States from New England west to northern Missouri and south to Texas and Florida, and also in eastern Mexico, northern Central America, Cuba and the Bahamas
Thick-billed Vireo on twig.jpg Thick-billed vireo Vireo crassirostrisWest Indies in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands, Tortuga Island in Haiti and Cuba
Jamaican vireo Vireo modestusJamaica
Cuban Vireo - Cuba S4E0897 (22991166932).jpg Cuban vireo Vireo gundlachiiCuba
Bell's Vireo (34056428355).jpg Bell's vireo Vireo belliiWestern North America and Central America
Vireo latimeri 184651046.jpg Puerto Rican vireo Vireo latimeriPuerto Rico
Black-capped Vireo - Texas - Usa H8O1970 (22978591836).jpg Black-capped vireo Vireo atricapillasouth from south-central Kansas through central Oklahoma and Texas to central Coahuila, Mexico
Dwarf Vireo (Vireo nelsoni).jpg Dwarf vireo Vireo nelsoniMexico
Slaty Vireo - Oaxaca - Mexico S4E9941 (22586261657).jpg Slaty vireo Vireo brevipennissouthern Mexico

References

  1. "Vireonidae". The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Howell, Stephen N. G.; Webb, Sophie (1995). A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press. pp.  614. ISBN   0-19-854012-4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Salaman, Paul; Barlow, Jon C. (2003). "Vireos" . In Christopher Perrins (ed.). The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books. pp.  478–479. ISBN   1-55297-777-3.
  4. Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre (1808). Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique Septentrionale : contenant un grand nombre d'espèces décrites ou figurées pour la première fois (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: Chez Desray. p. 83. The title page bears a date of 1807, but the volume did not appear until the following year.
  5. Gadow, Hans (1883). Catalogue of the Passeriformes or Perching Birds in the Collection of the British Museum. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Vol. 8 Cichlomorphae Part V. London: Trustees of the British Museum. p. 292.
  6. Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 110–111.
  7. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p.  402. ISBN   978-1-4081-2501-4.
  8. White-eyed vireo Archived 2018-12-30 at the Wayback Machine , Audubon Society of Bermuda
  9. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Shrikes, vireos, shrike-babblers". World Bird List Version 9.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 16 January 2019.

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