Vireo

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Vireonidae
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Vireos
Yellow-throated vireo (Vireo flavifrons)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Superfamily: Orioloidea
Family: Vireonidae
Swainson, 1837
Genera

The vireos

golden oriole, possibly the European greenfinch.[1][2]

They are typically dull-plumaged and greenish in color, the smaller species resembling

shrike-vireos at up to 17 cm and 40g.[3]

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

mixed feeding flocks). Most of the migrants defend winter territories against conspecifics. The exceptions are the complex comprising the red-eyed vireo, the yellow-green vireo, the black-whiskered vireo, and the Yucatan vireo, which winter in small wandering flocks.[5]

Voice

The song of the rufous-browed peppershrike is described as a whistled phrase with the rhythm Do you wash every week?

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

A white-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus bermudianus) in Bermuda

The six

Erpornis) which may be Old World members of this family.[7]
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

. Furthermore, some vireo and greenlet species may be closer to the peppershrikes than to their respective congeners. A more comprehensive study may reveal this family to be considerably undersplit at both the generic and species level.

Species in taxonomic order

Image Genus Species
shrike-babblers[7]
Swainson, 1832
Erpornis [8]
Hodgson, 1844
Cyclarhis Swainson, 1824, the peppershrikes
shrike-vireos
Hylophilus Temminck, 1822
Tunchiornis
Slager & Klicka, 2014
Pachysylvia Bonaparte, 1850
Vireo Vieillot, 1808, the true vireos.

References

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
      .