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Vireo (genus)

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Vireo
Chivi vireo (Vireo chivi)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Vireonidae
Genus: Vireo
Vieillot, 1808
Type species
Muscicapa novaeboracensis[1] = Tanagra grisea
Boddaert, 1783
Species

See text

Vireo is a genus of small passerine birds restricted to the New World. Vireos typically have dull greenish plumage (hence the name, from Latin virere, "to be green"), but some are brown or gray on the back and some have bright yellow underparts. They resemble wood warblers apart from their slightly larger size and heavier bills,[2] which in most species have a very small hook at the tip.[3] The legs are stout.[2]

Most species fall into two plumage groups: one with wing bars and yellow or white eye rings, and one with unmarked wings and eye stripes; however, the Chocó vireo has both wing bars and eye stripes.[3]

Sexes are alike in all species except for the black-capped vireo, in which the male's crown is black and the female's is gray.[3]

Taxonomy

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The genus Vireo was introduced in 1808 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot.[4] The type species was subsequently designated as the white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus) by German ornithologist Hans Friedrich Gadow in 1883.[5][6] The word vireo was used by Latin authors for a small, green, migratory bird, probably a Eurasian golden oriole, but a European greenfinch has also been suggested.[7]

Feeding

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All members of the genus mostly eat insects and other arthropods, but also eat some fruit.[3] A common pattern is arthropods in summer and fruit in winter.[2] Vireos take prey from leaves and branches and in midair, and the gray vireo takes 5% of its prey from the ground.[3]

Range and territorial behavior

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Most species are found in Central America and northern South America. Thirteen species occur farther north, in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda;[8] of these, all but Hutton's vireo are migratory. Vireos seldom fly long distances except in migration.[3]

The resident species occur in pairs or family groups that maintain territories all year (except Hutton's vireo, which joins mixed feeding flocks). Most of the migrants defend winter territories against conspecifics. The exceptions are the complex comprising the red-eyed vireo, the yellow-green vireo, the black-whiskered vireo, and the Yucatan vireo, which winter in small, wandering flocks.[3]

Voice and breeding

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Males of most species are persistent singers. Songs are usually rather simple, ranging from monotonous, in some species of the Caribbean littoral and islands, to elaborate and pleasant to human ears in the Chocó vireo.[3] Calls often include "scolding chatters and mews".[2]

Blue-headed vireo

The species whose nests are known all build a cup-shaped nest that hangs from branches. Its outer layer is made of coarse leaf and bark strips or of moss, depending on the species; in either case, the material is bound with spider silk and ornamented with spider egg cases. The lining is made of fine grass stems neatly circling the cup. In most species, both sexes work on the nest, but the female adds the lining. In the red-eyed, black-whiskered, Yucatan, and Philadelphia vireos, the male does not help, instead singing and accompanying the female while she builds the nest. The female does most of the incubation, spelled by the male except in the red-eyed vireo complex.[3]

The eggs are whitish; all but the black-capped and dwarf vireos have sparse, fine brown or red-brown spots at the wide end.[2][3] Tropical species lay two, while temperate-zone species lay four or five. Incubation lasts 11 to 13 days, and the young fledge after the same amount of time. Both sexes feed the nestlings arthropods, and each fledgeling is fed by one parent or the other (not both) for as long as 20 days.[3]

Species

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The genus contains 34 species:[9]

Group Image Scientific name Common Name Distribution
The "hypochryseus" group Golden vireo Vireo hypochryseus Mexico
The "olivaceous" group Yellow-green vireo Vireo flavoviridis southern Texas, Mexico (the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental—also the Cordillera Neovolcanica) south to central Panama
Red-eyed vireo Vireo olivaceus Canada and the eastern and northwestern United States, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia
Yucatan vireo Vireo magister Belize, Honduras, Mexico
Black-whiskered vireo Vireo altiloquus southern Florida, USA, and the West Indies as far south as the offshore islands of Venezuela
Chivi vireo Vireo chivi northeastern Colombia, into Venezuela and the entirety of the Guianas into eastern Brazil
Noronha vireo Vireo gracilirostris Fernando de Noronha, Brazil
The "gilvus" group Tepui vireo Vireo sclateri western Guyana and northern Brazil
Philadelphia vireo Vireo philadelphicus Canada to Central America
Warbling vireo Vireo gilvus Alaska to Mexico and the Florida Panhandle
Brown-capped vireo Vireo leucophrys Southern Mexico south to northwestern Bolivia
The "eye-ringed" group Hutton's vireo Vireo huttoni southern British Columbia in Canada to central Guatemala in Central America
Gray vireo Vireo vicinior southwestern United States and northern Baja California to western Texas
Yellow-throated vireo Vireo flavifrons southern United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America
Yellow-winged vireo Vireo carmioli Costa Rica and western Panama
Choco vireo Vireo masteri western Colombia and north-west Ecuador
Blue-headed vireo Vireo solitarius Canada and northern United States
Cassin's vireo Vireo cassinii southern British Columbia in Canada through the western coastal states of the United States.
Plumbeous vireo Vireo plumbeus southeastern Montana and western South Dakota south to the Pacific coast of Mexico
Blue Mountain vireo Vireo osburni Jamaica
Flat-billed vireo Vireo nanus Hispaniola
Mangrove vireo Vireo pallens Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua
Providencia vireo Vireo approximans Isla de Providencia
Cozumel vireo Vireo bairdi Mexico
San Andres vireo Vireo caribaeus islands of St. Andrew (or San Andrés) and Providencia
White-eyed vireo Vireo griseus eastern United States from New England west to northern Missouri and south to Texas and Florida, and also in eastern Mexico, northern Central America, Cuba and the Bahamas
Thick-billed vireo Vireo crassirostris West Indies in the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, Cayman Islands, Tortuga Island in Haiti and Cuba
Jamaican vireo Vireo modestus Jamaica
Cuban vireo Vireo gundlachii Cuba
Bell's vireo Vireo bellii Western North America and Central America
Puerto Rican vireo Vireo latimeri Puerto Rico
Black-capped vireo Vireo atricapilla south from south-central Kansas through central Oklahoma and Texas to central Coahuila, Mexico
Dwarf vireo Vireo nelsoni Mexico
Slaty vireo Vireo brevipennis southern Mexico

References

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  1. ^ "Vireonidae". The Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  2. ^ a b c d e Howell, Stephen N. G.; Webb, Sophie (1995). A Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America. Oxford University Press. pp. 614. ISBN 0-19-854012-4.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Salaman, Paul; Barlow, Jon C. (2003). "Vireos". In Christopher Perrins (ed.). The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books. pp. 478–479. ISBN 1-55297-777-3.
  4. ^ Vieillot, Louis Jean Pierre (1808). Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de l'Amérique Septentrionale : contenant un grand nombre d'espèces décrites ou figurées pour la première fois (in French). Vol. 1. Paris: Chez Desray. p. 83. The title page bears a date of 1807, but the volume did not appear until the following year.
  5. ^ Gadow, Hans (1883). Catalogue of the Passeriformes or Perching Birds in the Collection of the British Museum. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Vol. 8 Cichlomorphae Part V. London: Trustees of the British Museum. p. 292.
  6. ^ Paynter, Raymond A. Jr, ed. (1968). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 14. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. pp. 110–111.
  7. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 402. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  8. ^ White-eyed vireo, Audubon Society of Bermuda
  9. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Shrikes, vireos, shrike-babblers". World Bird List Version 9.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
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Media related to Vireo at Wikimedia Commons

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