A medium gray vireo of southwestern habitats.
§ Quick facts
§ Encyclopedia
The plumbeous vireo is a small North American songbird in the family Vireonidae, the vireos, greenlets, and shrike-babblers. It is found from the U. S. states of Montana and South Dakota south to Honduras.
Source: Wikipedia — Plumbeous vireo Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
§ Identification
Field marks. Crisp gray-and-white vireo with bold white spectacles, two white wing bars, gray upperparts, and white underparts with little or no yellow.
Similar species. Cassin's Vireo shows olive and yellow tones; Blue-headed is brighter still. Plumbeous is the clean gray-and-white interior bird.
Voice. A burry, deliberate series of slurred phrases, like a hoarse Blue-headed Vireo.
§ Diet & behavior
Diet. Caterpillars and other insects, occasional berries.
Behavior. A vireo of dry montane pine and pine-oak woodland in the interior West; forages slowly in the mid-canopy. The grayest member of the former 'Solitary Vireo' complex.
§ Range
Southwestern US, Mexico
§ Habitat
Pine-oak forests
§ Threats
Habitat loss, climate change.
§ Conservation status
According to the IUCN Red List, the plumbeous vireo is currently classified as Least Concern.
§ What helps
Support southwestern forest conservation.
§ Further reading
- Wikipedia — Plumbeous vireo
- www.allaboutbirds.org — authoritative profile of Vireo plumbeus
- IUCN Red List — search for Vireo plumbeus
- GBIF occurrence records
- Encyclopedia of Life — Vireo plumbeus
§ Sources cited
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology — All About Birds
- National Audubon Society
- iNaturalist
- IUCN Red List
