The black-whiskered vireo (Vireo altiloquus ) is a small passerine bird, which breeds in southern Florida, USA, and the West Indies as far south as the offshore islands of Venezuela. It is a partial migrant, with northern birds wintering from the Greater Antilles to northern South America. This species has occurred as a rare vagrant to Costa Rica.
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
Oviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
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MigratingAnimal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individual animals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is the most common form of migrati...
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starts withThis vireo is 14–15 cm in length, has a 25 cm wingspan and weighs 17–19 g. It has thick blue-grey legs and a stout bill.
The adult black-whiskered vireo has dull olive-green upperparts and white underparts, with yellowish on the flanks and under the tail. It has red eyes and a grey-brown crown with faint dusky edges. There is a dark line through the eyes and a white eyebrow stripe. There is a distinctive black line (the "whisker") on the neck sides. Juvenile birds are similar, but have brown-red eyes.
This species is similar to red-eyed vireo, but is duller and browner above, and is best distinguished by the black whisker mark. The song is a three-syllable whip, Tom Kelly, more abrupt than that of red-eyed vireo.
The Florida race V. a. barbatulus is shorter-billed by 15% than the northern Caribbean subspecies V. a. bonairensis. The latter form has occurred in the US as a vagrant to Florida and Louisiana.
The breeding habitat is open deciduous wooded areas and cultivation, and in Florida also mangroves. The black-whiskered vireo builds a cup nest in a fork of a tree branch, and lays 2-3 white eggs.
The black-whiskered vireo gleans insects from tree foliage, sometimes hovering while foraging. It will also eat small quantities of berries
This bird suffers from nest parasitism by the brown-headed cowbird in its US range, and shiny cowbird further south.
