White-eyed Vireo

Overview

White-eyed Vireo: Medium-sized, secretive vireo with olive-green upperparts, and white underparts with yellow sides and flanks. Spectacles are pale yellow and iris is white. Wings are dark with two white bars. Legs and feet are gray. Flight is fast and direct on short, rounded wings.

Range and Habitat

White-eyed Vireo: Breeds from Nebraska to Massachusetts, south to eastern Mexico and throughout Florida. Winters from the southern Gulf Coast to Central America and from coastal North Carolina, the Bahamas, and Bermuda to the Caribbean. Found in dense thickets, cypress swamps, and scrubby edges of roads, and ponds. Avoids urban areas but may be found in wooded parks near large cities.

INTERESTING FACTS

The White-eyed Vireo is one of only two perching birds in the U.S. with white eyes. The other, the Wrentit, is only found in the westernmost part of the country.
A roughly 400,000 year old wing bone from a White-eyed Vireo is the only fossil record of all vireos in North America.
Their nests are favored by Brown-headed Cowbirds for brood parasitism.
A group of vireos are collectively known as a "call" of vireos.

The White-eyed Vireo is a small songbird found in the southeastern United States, including New Jersey, northern Missouri, Texas, Florida, eastern Mexico, northern Central America, Cuba and the Bahamas. Most northern populations in North America will migrate south in winter months, searching for warmer climates. The preferred habitat for this species includes brushlands and shrublands found in neglected pastures and cultivated farmland. Nests are cup-shaped, and attached to tree branches via spider webs. Diets consist mainly of insects, including caterpillars, and berries in the winter. The current conservation rating for the White-eyed Vireo is Least Concern.