Vireo
Vireos | |
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Yellow-throated vireo (Vireo flavifrons) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Superfamily: | Orioloidea |
Family: | Vireonidae Swainson, 1837 |
Genera | |
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The vireos
They are typically dull-plumaged and greenish in color, the smaller species resembling
Distribution and habitat
Most species are found in Middle America and northern South America. Thirteen species of true vireos occur farther north, in the United States, Bermuda[4] and Canada; of these all but Hutton's vireo are migratory. Members of the family seldom fly long distances except in migration.[5] They inhabit forest environments, with different species preferring forest canopies, undergrowth, or mangrove swamps.[3]
A few species in the genus Vireo have appeared on the eastern side of the Atlantic as vagrants to the Western Palearctic.[6]
Behaviour
The resident species occur in pairs or family groups that maintain territories all year (except Hutton's vireo, which joins
Voice
Males of most species are persistent singers. Songs are usually rather simple, monotonous in some species of the Caribbean littoral and islands, and most elaborate and pleasant to human ears in the Chocó vireo and the peppershrikes.[5]
Breeding
The nests of many tropical species are unknown. Of those that are known, all build a cup-shaped nest that hangs from branches. The female does most of the incubation, spelled by the male except in the red-eyed vireo complex.[5]
Feeding
All members of the family eat some fruit but mostly insects and other arthropods. They take prey from leaves and branches; true vireos also flycatch, and the gray vireo takes 5 percent of its prey from the ground.[5]
Systematics
The six
Observers have commented on the vireo-like behaviour of the Pteruthius shrike-babblers, but apparently no-one suspected the biogeographically unlikely possibility of vireo relatives in Asia.The family can be conveniently though perhaps inaccurately categorised by genus as the true vireos, the greenlets, the shrike-vireos and the peppershrikes. Preliminary genetic studies by Johnson et al. revealed large interspecific genetic distances between clades within Vireo and
Species in taxonomic order
Image | Genus | Species |
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shrike-babblers[7] Swainson, 1832 |
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Erpornis [8] Hodgson, 1844 |
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Cyclarhis Swainson, 1824, the peppershrikes |
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shrike-vireos |
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Hylophilus Temminck, 1822 |
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Tunchiornis Slager & Klicka, 2014 |
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Pachysylvia Bonaparte, 1850 |
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Vireo Vieillot, 1808, the true vireos. |
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References
- ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ^ "Vireo". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ ISBN 1-85391-186-0
- Audubon Society of Bermuda
- ^ ISBN 1-55297-777-3
- ^ "Western Palearctic". Avibase. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^
External links
- Vireos (Vireonidae) information, including 33 species with videos and 40 with photographs at the Internet Bird Collection
- Texts on Wikisource:
- "Vireo". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
- New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
- Ripley, George; Dana, Charles A., eds. (1879). "The American Cyclopædia.