Spit, and see if I care. Spit!
Along edges of woods, sitting low while hidden within vegetation, this small, olive drab gray bird has bright yellow spectacles on the gray head. It is a denizen of second growth forest, riparian streamside thickets, and old fields.
Having a very distinct white iris, more often heard than seen, the solitary bird is often considered to be a warbler or kinglet. It flicks its wings open and is stocky and active, usually found in the southeast quadrant of the country.
Simple enough song was illustrated, was it not? Don't let this bird fool you, for it can sing some of the most complex songs. Males are quite capable of more than a dozen songs, comprising six to ten highly variable elements. Explosive and spunky, its little head shyly peers out of thick shrubbery, and occasionally, it will actually show itself quite well.
White-eyed Vireo
Estero Llano Grande, TX 2017
Favoring spiders, lacewings, moths, butterflies, beetles, and the like, it will slowly hop about in shrubbery to glean these insects. Larger prey will be pinned down with a foot to be controlled. During nonbreeding season, they will consume berries from sumac, poison ivy, pokeweed, and wax myrtle.
Nests are low to the ground at approximately three to eight feet in forks of small trees or shrubs. They are suspended from horizontal forks and held together with spider silk, like many other vireo nests, but are more conelike, similar to warbling vireo construction.
Males are just as diligent as females to raising young, and he is a good protector and provider.
Many of the species are parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird, and they will not have time to tend their own young, which will die.
These are breeding birds of eastern Oklahoma. They are early migrants and thickets are just beginning to leaf out when they are ready to nest.
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