There is a plain bird,
perhaps the plainest, a tiny thumb-sized bird with grey above and dusty white
below. You most likely have never seen the Warbling Vireo but you for sure have
heard this day time singer. The vireos are warbler like in size, migratory,
insectivores that grab caterpillars from the leaves and flies from the air.
They are non-descript in looks and non-descript in behavior, lurking high up in
deciduous trees like oaks and maples. But vireos make themselves known by their
loud, repetitive song. Unlike a chickadee for example, that has specific phrases
to its song like the namesake “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” vireos are more
improvisational giving a series of evenly spaced though varying phrases. The
Red-eyed vireo’s song is often described as the phrases “here I am, where are you? Pick
it up, put it down. Over here, over there” and on and on. The spacing and tempo
of these phrases is a crucial tool for field identification. Of the three
vireos we are most likely to find this time of year we can separate them out
using the spacing of phrases. The Blue-headed vireo’s song is bury and husky,
and slowly delivered. With a slightly faster delivery and a far greater
stamina, the Red-eyed vireo’s song is often song throughout the day from a high
vantage point, and sung with long determination. Finally, the Warbling Vireo
who’s song has no breaks in it at all, but instead is a kind of rush of sound,
the way a child might taunt a slower child into a chase on the playground, “nana nana na-na-na”.
Learning to hear these subtle differences will unlock some new, hard to spot
species singing over your head all summer long.
