How to Identify aWhite-eyed Vireo
Vireo griseus · 4.3–5.5 in (11–14 cm)
Male vs. female
Male
Olive-green above with two whitish wingbars, yellow flanks, bright yellow spectacles and a staring white eye. Sexes look alike.
Female
Identical to the male in the field.
Male photo: lwolfartist / Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0 · Second photo: Derek Bakken / Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0
Field marks
- Yellow spectacles around a white eye
- Two pale wingbars
- Yellow wash on the flanks against a white throat
- White iris — dark in young birds
Similar species
What it sounds like
An explosive, scolding jumble usually rendered "quick-give-me-a-rain-check", ending abruptly.
Behaviour that gives it away
Skulks in dense thickets and weaves imitations of other species into its own song.
Habitat & range
Dense scrub, brushy thickets and overgrown field edges in the South.
When you'll see it
Depending on where in southeastern, eastern and central North America you are, it is present all year and a summer visitor that arrives to breed.
What it eats
Insects, spiders and, in winter, small fruits.
Did you know?
Its white iris develops only in the second year, so young birds look like a different species entirely.
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