General

Red-eyed Vireo: Medium-sized vireo with olive-brown upperparts and white underparts. Head has a gray cap, white eyebrow, black eyestripe, and red eyes. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has brown eyes and yellow-washed underparts.

Range and Habitat

Red-eyed Vireo: Breeds from British Columbia, Ontario, and Gulf of Saint Lawrence south to Oregon, Colorado, the Gulf Coast, and Florida. Spends winters in the tropics. Inhabits mature deciduous woodlands; also found in shade trees in residential areas.

Breeding and Nesting

Red-eyed Vireo: Three to five white eggs with black and brown spots at larger end are laid in a cup nest made of bark, grass, spider webs, and other plant materials, and suspended in the fork of a horizontal branch 2 to 60 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 11 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Red-eyed Vireo: Consumes large quantities of insects, especially caterpillars of gypsy moths and fall webworms; also eats fruits in winter; gleans insects from tree foliage, sometimes hovering while foraging.

Vocalization

Red-eyed Vireo: Song is a series of repeated phrases and pauses, "look up...see me?...over here...this way...do you hear me?...higher still!" Call is a whining, nasal "chewy."

Similar Species

Red-eyed Vireo: Black-whiskered Vireo has distinct moustache stripe. Other similar vireos lack red eyes.