Black-whiskered Vireo

Vireo altiloquusOrder: PASSERIFORMES Family: Vireos (Vireonidae)

Codes: Common Name: BWVI Scientific Name: VIRALT ITIS Taxonomic No.: 179016

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Black-whiskered Vireo Breeding Male Portrait

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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.

Black-whiskered Vireo

Black-whiskered Vireo: Large vireo with olive-green upperparts and olive-buff washed white underparts. The head has gray crown, dark whiskers (moustache stripe) along sides of throat, white eyebrow with black border, and red-brown eyes. The bill is black, straight, and slightly hooked.

● Song: "Whip-tom-KELLY!", "John-to-whit", "cheap-john-stir-up!", "quee!"

● Foraging & 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.

● Breeding & 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.

● 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.

Flight Pattern

Relatively fast direct flight with shallow, rapid wing beats.

Black-whiskered Vireo Breeding Male Body Illustration

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

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationFairly common to common

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.6 Ounces

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