White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus Scientific name definitions

“The favorite retreat of the White-eyed Vireo is the thicket of the swamp. There, his querulous notes will be heard with a certain impatient inflection of the voice which unmistakably denotes dissatisfaction—at least, that is the impression one gets upon hearing him for the first time. If one stops to investigate the little fellow with the opera-glass, and he discovers the intruder, there is pretty sure to be expostulations on his part of a significant if not a saucy nature.” F. Schuyler Mathews, 1921 (1 Mathews, F. S. (1921). Field Book of Wild Birds and their Music. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, NY, USA. Close : 163)

Early naturalists were impressed with the lively character of the White-eyed Vireo, using adjectives such as fearless, irritable, spritely, and snappish. Even Audubon (2 Audubon, J. J. (1841). The Birds of America. Volume 3. J. J. Audubon, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Close : 147) noted that their singing was "emitted with a certain degree of pomposity." This is a reflection of the crisp and explosive nature of their singing, their energetic foraging style, their penetrating white iris, and the likelihood of an eye-to-eye encounter with them. Indeed, high density of shrub vegetation at human eye-level is the most predictive characteristic of their habitat, whether the successional scrub of eastern forests, regenerating farmland, thornscrub of Texas, bayhead swamp of coastal states, or the mangroves of southern Florida.

The White-eyed Vireo is a migratory songbird of southeastern North America and a common breeding resident where its habitat is abundant. The male defends the territory for the monogamous breeding pair that can produce two and sometimes three nests during the season. Nests are pendulous cups, usually well hidden in dense growth. Both parents participate in nest-building and care for young. Their nests are often parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater), and in such cases, vireo young do not survive.

Although cryptic in both plumage and behavior, males are often heard and exhibit complex singing patterns. Individuals have repertoires of a dozen or more distinct songs, each comprising 6 to 10 highly variable elements. A notable aspect of its song structure is that it frequently copies recognizable call notes from other species and inserts them as elements of its own song. This unusual blend of notes with different acoustic structures is part of why their songs have such characteristic expression.

The White-eyed Vireo is a short-distance migrant, overwintering in coastal states from Virginia to Texas, and in eastern Mexico, notably in the Yucatan, the northern Caribbean, and occasionally south to Costa Rica. Some individuals are year-round residents in the southeastern United States. In the Yucatan and Caribbean, it is sympatric with several closely related vireos, but avoids interspecific competition by use of habitat shift, niche partitioning, and interspecific territoriality.

A principal limitation on White-eyed Vireo populations appears to be the availability of dense scrub habitat. Since this habitat has little economic value, it is rarely protected. Some land use practices have promoted their habitat, while others have reduced availability. Breeding populations have increased in some regions, while declining in others. The species is more variable in habitat use on its overwintering grounds, however, and probably has not been seriously harmed by habitat changes in the subtropics. Its overall breeding population in the United States has increased in recent decades, and so as long as appropriate deciduous scrub is available, the White-eyed Vireo most likely will continue to thrive.