White-eyed vireo

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White-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus)

The white-eyed vireo is a small songbird in the vireos family. It has greyish olive upperparts, white underparts with yellow on the sides, dark wings and tail, two white wing bars, and white eyes ringed by a yellow surround.

Where it lives
- It breeds in the eastern United States—from New England to northern Missouri, and south to Texas and Florida—and also in eastern Mexico, northern Central America, Cuba, and the Bahamas.
- Some Gulf Coast and southern birds stay year-round; most North American birds migrate south for winter.

Habitat and nesting
- It favors bushes and shrubs in overgrown pastures and abandoned fields.
- Nests are built near the ground in tangled thickets. They’re cup-shaped, made from weeds, leaves, grass, bark, or bits of trash, and tied to a fork in a branch with spider webs.
- Females lay 3–5 white eggs with dark spots. Both parents incubate for 12–16 days, and the young leave the nest after 9–11 days.

Appearance details
- Head and back are greyish olive; underparts are white with yellow flanks. Wings and tail are dark, with two white wing bars. Eyes are white with a yellow ring around them. Males and females look alike.

Song and diet
- The song is highly variable, a rapid series of notes ending with sharp “chip” notes.
- During the breeding season, they eat mostly insects (especially caterpillars and stink bugs), plus beetles, flies, wasps, snails, and occasionally small vertebrates. In autumn and winter, they eat berries to supplement their diet.

Conservation and subspecies
- The species is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.
- There are six recognized subspecies, including migratory northern forms and resident populations in the southeastern United States, Florida Keys, and Bermuda.
- The Bermuda subspecies, known as the Chick of the Village, has shorter wings and duller plumage. Bermuda protects this population, which is about 2,000 individuals.