WHITE-EYED VIREO GALLERY
(Vireo griseus)
eBird provides this description of the White-eyed Vireo: While buried in dense shrubbery, they belt out scratchy “chick-burio-chick” song and endless variations on the theme. More often heard than seen. Look for white eye, yellow eyebrow, olive back, gray breast, and yellow sides. Thick bill characteristic of vireos. Forages in scrubby areas, overgrown pastures, and forest edges for insects.
I have seen the White-eyed Vireo on several occasions at Warbler Pond in the Warbler Woods Bird Sanctuary. This species is plentiful at Warbler Woods but not that easy to see. As you walk the property you often hear them, but never see them, except at the water features where they show themselves.
“Cool Facts” About the White-eyed Vireo From All About Birds…
- Both the male and the female White-eyed Vireo sing on the wintering grounds, but only the male sings on the breeding grounds.
- In Florida, scientists found a 400,000-year-old wing bone from a White-eyed Vireo from the late Pleistocene. It is North America’s only fossil record for the whole vireo family.
- The White-eyed Vireo bathes by rubbing its body against dewy foliage in the morning.
- The oldest recorded White-eyed Vireo was a male, at least 10 years, 11 months old when he was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in Louisiana, the same state where he had been banded.