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| White-eyed vireo Temporal range: | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Vireonidae |
| Genus: | Vireo |
| Species: | V. griseus |
| Binomial name | |
| Vireo griseus (Boddaert, 1783) | |
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The white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus) is a small songbird of the family Vireonidae.
It breeds in the eastern 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. Populations on the US Gulf Coast and further south are resident, but most North American birds migrate south in winter. This vireo frequents bushes and shrubs in abandoned cultivation or overgrown pastures.
The grass-lined nest is a neat cup shape, attached to a fork in a tree branch by spider webs. It lays 3–5 dark-spotted white eggs. Both the male and female incubate the eggs for 12–16 days. The young leave the nest 9–11 days after hatching.
Measurements: [2]
Its head and back are a greyish olive, and the underparts are white with yellow flanks. The wings and tail are dark, and there are two white wing bars on each wing. The eyes have white irises, and are surrounded by yellow spectacles. Sexes are similar.
The white-eyed vireo's song is a variable and rapid six to seven note phrase, starting and ending with a sharp chick.
During the breeding season, the diet of this species consists almost exclusively of insects, primarily caterpillars. In the autumn and winter it supplements its diet of insects with berries.
The white-eyed vireo was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire naturelle des oiseaux . [3] The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. [4] Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Tanagra grisea in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. [5] Buffon specified that his specimen had come from Louisiana, but in 1945 the type locality was restricted to New Orleans. [6] [7] The white-eyed vireo is now placed in the genus Vireo was introduced in 1808 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. [8] [9] 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. The specific epithet griseus is Medieval Latin for grey. [10]
Six subspecies are recognised: [9]
The northern subspecies, V. g. noveboracensis, occupies most of the range of this species and is fully migratory. This sub-species is larger and has more brightly colored plumage than all other subspecies.
The resident southeastern coastal plain race, V. g. griseus is a slightly smaller and duller colored subspecies. It does not typically migrate out of its breeding range in the winter.
The resident Florida Keys race, V. g. maynardi, is greyer above and whiter below, and the south Texan V. g. micrus is like a smaller maynardi.
V. g. bermudianus is endemic to Bermuda, where it is known as the Chick of the Village. [13] [14] This has shorter wings and a duller plumage. Along with other endemic and native Bermudian birds, it was threatened with extinction following the loss of 8 million Bermuda cedar trees in the 1940s, and is now quite rare. This species is listed under the Bermuda Protected Species Act 2003.
The hooded warbler is a New World warbler. It breeds in eastern North America across the eastern United States and into southernmost Canada (Ontario). It is migratory, wintering in Central America and the West Indies. Hooded warblers are very rare vagrants to western Europe.
The white-naped woodpecker is woodpecker which is a widespread but a scarce breeder in the Indian Subcontinent. It is associated with open forest and scrub with some trees. It nests in a tree hole, laying one or two white eggs.
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The pied puffbird is a species of bird in the family Bucconidae, the puffbirds, nunlets, and nunbirds. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
The rufous nightjar is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Lucia, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.
The spotted rail is a species of bird in the subfamily Rallinae of the rail, crake, and coot family Rallidae. It is found in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.
The variegated antpitta is a species of bird in the family Grallariidae. It is found in southeastern Brazil, eastern Paraguay, the Guianas and the northern Amazon Basin. Its range extends to Venezuela in the northwest; in the Amazon Basin, it is found in the downstream half of the basin, as well as in the Atlantic outlet region of the neighboring Tocantins-Araguaia River drainage to the southeast. A minor disjunct population is in Peru, and an Argentinian population is found in the tongue of land between Paraguay and southern Brazil.
The helmeted pygmy tyrant is a species of bird in the family Tyrannidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and heavily degraded former forest.
The Nubian woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is distributed widely in Central and Eastern Africa, from Chad in west to Somalia in east and Tanzania in south. It is a fairly common species with a wide range, the population seems stable, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".
The spot-breasted woodpecker or spot-breasted flicker is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Panama and every mainland South American country except Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
The olive woodpecker is a species of bird in the woodpecker family Picidae.
The Philippine magpie-robin is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is endemic to the Philippines. It used to be considered a subspecies of the Oriental magpie-robin.
