Bird name:

Black-whiskered Vireo

Vireo altiloquus

Order

PASSERIFORMES

Family

Vireos (Vireonidae)

Code 4

BWVI

Code 6

VIRALT

ITIS

179016

Breeding Location:

Bushes, shrubs, and thickets, Forest

Breeding Type:

Monogamous, Solitary nester

Breeding Population:

Fairly common to common

Egg Color:

White with brown, purple and black specks

Number of Eggs:

2 - 3

Incubation Days:

12 - 14

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Twigs, grass, plant fibers, spider webs, cocoons, and lichens., Lined with grass, pine needles, and hair.

Migration:

Migratory

RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS

General

Black-whiskered Vireo: Large vireo with olive-green upperparts and olive-buff washed white underparts. Head has gray crown, dark whisker (moustache stripe) along sides of throat, white eyebrow with black border, and red-brown eyes. Bill is black, straight, and slightly hooked. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has brown eyes and more yellow on underparts.

Range and Habitat

Black-whiskered Vireo: Breeds in southern Florida and West Indies. Spends winters in tropics. Preferred habitats include mangroves, thick scrub, and shade trees.

Breeding and Nesting

Black-whiskered Vireo: Two to three white eggs with fine brown, purple, and black specks are laid in a nest made of twigs, grass, plant fibers, spider webs, cocoons, and lichens, lined with grass, pine needles, and hair, and built from 3 to 20 feet above the ground on a thin branch of a shrub or tree. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days and is carried out by the female.

Foraging and Feeding

Black-whiskered Vireo: Eats a variety of insects but also takes some spiders and fruits; forages slowly and deliberately, picking food from leaves and branches.

Vocalization

Black-whiskered Vireo: Song is a humorous mnemonic of "whip-tom-KELLY", "John-to-whit", or "cheap-john-stir-up." Call is mewing "quee."

Similar Species

Black-whiskered Vireo: Red-eyed Vireo is smaller, has shorter bill, white behind eye with dark border, dark gray crown, darker back, and lacks dark moustache stripe.

Percevia^® Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The Percevia field guides, database and search protocol patent pending.

The best bird guide and bird watching search engine to identify birds!

Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Underparts

Belly, undertail coverts, chest, flanks, and foreneck.

Upperparts

Back, rump, hindneck, wings, and crown.

Crown

The crown is the top part of the birds head.

Eyebrow

Also called the supercilicum or superciliary it is the arch of feathers over each eye.

Whisker

Also called the mustache, malar steak or stripe, it is the contrasting colored feathers on each side of the chin down through the throat area.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America