Yellow-green Vireo

Overview

The yellow-green vireo (Vireo flavoviridis) is a small American passerine bird classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is a migratory species that breeds from Mexico to Panama and winters in the northern and eastern Andes and the western Amazon Basin.

Identification

• Measures 14–14.7 cm in length and weighs approximately 18.5 g, featuring olive-green upperparts and a dusky-edged gray crown.
• Displays a white supercilium and a dark line extending from the bill to red-brown eyes, with white underparts that have yellow breast sides and flanks.
• Produces a nasal nyaaah call and a song described as a repetitive veree veer viree, fee'er vireo viree, which is shorter and faster than that of the red-eyed vireo.

Habitat

This species inhabits the canopy and middle levels of light woodland, forest edges, and gardens at altitudes ranging from sea level to 1,500 m. Its breeding range extends from southern Texas through the mountain ranges of northern Mexico down to central Panama, while wintering grounds are located in the northern and eastern Andes and the western Amazon basin.

Diet

Yellow-green vireos forage by gleaning insects from tree foliage, with a preference for caterpillars and beetles. They also consume small fruits, including mistletoe berries and, in winter quarters, berries of Cymbopetalum mayanum and gumbo-limbo.

Did you know?

The female alone incubates a clutch of two or three brown-marked white eggs in a cup nest built from a wide range of plant materials, which is typically attached to a stout twig between 1.5 and 3.5 m above the ground.