Paletta Park, Burlington, ON. May 24 2020. Many times, in this space, I’ve had kind words to say about vireos, and here I go again. There are a five, perhaps six, vireo species that we encounter hereabouts: Warbling, Red-eyed, Blue-headed, Yellow-throated and Philadelphia Vireos. That’s five, the sixth is the White-eyed Vireo, but it belongs a bit further south, occurring here rarely and causing much fuss and admiration among birders when it does. They are all summer visitors.
I met two of them this morning, first a Warbling Vireo singing dutifully from the upper levels of a Black Walnut tree. I say dutifully because they certainly nest here and I’m sure he was staking his territorial claim. Warbling Vireos aren’t much to look at, being generally a drab greenish grey, it’s their rambling and cascading treetop song that distinguishes them and, like all vireos, they have a sort of pugnacious outlook towards the rest of the world. They’re quite common through summer months. The photo above is of one taken six or seven years ago.
Much less common and my second vireo of the day was a Philadelphia Vireo, found lazily picking insects from the scarcely open canopy of an elm. We see Phillys infrequently and only as passage migrants on their way to and from the boreal forest where they are a widespread breeding bird. It might be easily confused with its near lookalike the Red-eyed Vireo (below) but the Philly is quite a bit smaller and the beauty of this bird is the subtle wash of yellow on its undersides. The Red-eyed, by the way, is a breeding summer resident here in southern Ontario and is a little more crisply marked than the Philly, their songs are almost identical which adds to the challenges in telling them apart. I’ll understand if you’re confused. Today’s Philadelphia Vireo was my Bird of the Day, just for being here.
Nice!