White-eyed Vireo Similar Species Comparison
Main SpeciesWhite-eyed Vireo
Adult
Small songbird with thick, straight, slightly hooked bill. Gray head contrasts with olive-green back. Yellow "spectacles" outline pale eye.
© Craig Brelsford / Macaulay LibraryFlorida, February 21, 2017Adult
Small songbird with thick, straight bill. Gray head and yellow spectacles contrast with white throat. Flanks are washed with yellow.
© Brad Imhoff / Macaulay LibraryOhio, April 23, 2019Juvenile
Young birds have dark eyes that turn pale in their first winter or spring.
© David Hall / Macaulay LibraryFlorida, July 01, 2017Adult
Forages for caterpillars and other insects in shrubby tangles and other low, dense growth. Song is a fast jumble of notes, with a sharp chip at the beginning and end.
© Larry Arbanas / Macaulay LibraryTexasAdult
Dark wings with two white wingbars. Pale underparts: white throat and center of belly, with yellow wash on flanks.
© Srinivas Karur Badmi / Macaulay LibraryTexas, March 19, 2017Adult
White-eyed Vireos live in dense tangles including forest edges, wetland thickets, regrowing woodland, and overgrown fields.
© Arturo Kirkconnell Jr / Macaulay LibraryPinar del Río, November 13, 2015Similar SpeciesBlue-headed Vireo
Adult
Blue-headed Vireo has bold white "spectacles" and a dark eye instead of the yellow spectacles and pale eye of White-eyed Vireo. Blue-headed Vireo lives in the canopy of mature deciduous forest; White-eyed is more a bird of low tangles.
© Brian Sullivan / Macaulay LibraryMississippi, December 25, 2009Similar SpeciesBell's Vireo
Adult
Bell's Vireo has a dark eye and lacks the bold yellow "spectacles" of White-eyed Vireo.
© Samuel Paul Galick / Macaulay LibraryNew Jersey, December 03, 2011Species in This Family
Vireos, Shrike-Babblers, and Erpornis(Order: Passeriformes, Family: Vireonidae)
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