Measurements
Both Sexes
- Length
- 4.3–5.1 in
11–13 cm - Wingspan
- 6.7 in
17 cm - Weight
- 0.4–0.5 oz
10–14 g
Other Names
- Vireo aux yeux blancs (French)
- Vireo ojiblanco (Spanish)
Cool Facts
- Both the male and the female White-eyed Vireo sing their primary song on the wintering grounds.
- The only fossil record in North America for the entire family Vireonidae is a wing bone of a White-eyed Vireo from the late Pleistocene of Florida, from approximately 400,000 years ago.
- The White-eyed Vireo bathes by rubbing against wet foliage.
Habitat
Scrub
Found in deciduous scrub, overgrown pastures, old fields, wood margins, streamside thickets, and mangroves.
Food
Insects
Insects, some fruit.
Nesting
Nesting Facts
- Clutch Size
- 3–5 eggs
- Egg Description
- White with sparse spotting.
- Condition at Hatching
- Helpless and naked.
Nest Description
Nest an open cup suspended by rim from fork of small branch in tree. Made of leaves, bark, plant fibers, rootlets, or bits of paper, held together with insect silk and spider webbing, and decorated on outside with lichens, moss, or leaves. Lined with rootlets, fine grass, or hair. Placed low to ground.
Nest Placement
Shrub
Behavior
Foliage Gleaner
Forages deliberately with short hops or flights, pausing to look for insects by tilting its head and peering. Gleans insects by picking, hovering, reaching, lunging, hanging, or leaping.
Conservation
Least Concern
Common. Populations appear stable.
Credits
- Hopp, S. L., A. Kirby, and C. A. Boone. 1995. White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus). In The Birds of North America, No. 168 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.