 Photo: Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
Recording of song by Lang Elliott You can also buy the CD in our store. |
RED-EYED VIREO (Vireo olivaceus)
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| 5.5 inches. Neotropical migrant. Breeds in Canada and the northern and eastern United States, and winters in the Amazon basin of South America. Usually found in riparian areas. Its habitat is deciduous woodland. On its breeding grounds and during migration, this species consumes almost exclusively insects. On its wintering grounds, however, its diet consists almost entirely of fruit. The nest is in a shrub or low in a tree, usually about five to ten feet above the ground, but occasionally as low as two feet or as high as sixty feet. The four eggs, rarely three or five, are incubated by both parents for eleven to fourteen days. The altricial nestlings are tended by both parents and leave the nest at twelve days of age. This species is one of the hosts most frequently parasitized by brown-headed cowbirds. |