Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: White-eyed Vireo

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.

Oklahoma Breeding Bird Species Profile: Warbling Vireo

Happy-go-lucky and charismatic, the nondescript Warbling Vireo is just that, a mesmerizing singer.  If one travels edges of riparian birding venues, if your mood is poor, it won't be for long.  This bird has a wanton and uplifting sound quality that will keep anybody wanting more of it.  Many have hoped that a family will just happen to choose a nearby tree for nesting purposes, just for the joyful sounds that will constantly come from the vicinity.

Favoring cottonwoods and aspens, this loner gleans insects from mid- to upper-story levels.  However, if a young member of the family has recently fledged, the entire family goes along for the ride.  This is a common breeding bird of most of the country, yet many never get to see it for long, as it is always on the move within the leaves, just like its quarry.

The nest is much more a work of art than the remaining vireos in Payne County.  It is usually high in its tree of choice, well sheltered by a leaf canopy.  They are in the slenderest of branches in a fork that they can find, usually in an area that no predator can safely alight near the top of the tree.  However, in recent years, one nest was located where the tree was in a gully, so it was nearly at eye level.

                                                         
                                                                   Warbling Vireo Nest
                                                             Photographed January 2017

A pair was met shortly after they arrived in early spring a couple of years ago.  The two stayed in close proximity and foraged together, but they both made themselves quite available for photos.  I believe that the male could have been courting the female, as he did a great deal of fluttering about and she remained rather cool to his behavior.

                                                             Male Warbling Vireo

After the young fledge, they are very light colored, and they sound nothing like the parents, giving an odd, non-descript single note.  This was what drew me to them, the color and the sound that emanated from the fledgling.  The parents were constantly feeding the young, which were always on the parent's tail.  Try as I might, I was unable to get a good photo of the young, as they were darting about so quickly.

This family unit was observed in July of 2018.  They disappeared from the nesting area about a week later, but it is believed that they still reside in the area.  Several pair were noted in a mile-and-a-half region.

                                                             Female Warbling Vireo