Birds

Hutton's vireo

Vireo huttoni

Photo by Greg Gillson (Pacific NW Birder)

Common name:
Hutton’s vireo (en); juruviara-de-Hutton (pt); viréo de Hutton (fr); vireo de Hutton (es); Hutton-vireo (de)

Taxonomy:
Order Passeriformes
Family Vireonidae

Range:
This species is found in western North America, in two distinct populations. One is found along the Pacific coast from British Columbia, Canada, to Baja California in north-western Mexico. The other population is found from northern Mexico, Arizona and Texas to Guatemala, being separated from the former by the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.

Size:
These birds are 12-13 cm long and weigh 9-15 g.

Habitat:
Hutton’s vireos are mainly found in evergreen forests, preferring oak or pine-oak forests and tall chaparral, at altitudes of 900-3.500 m.

Diet:
They mainly glean caterpillars, beetles, crickets and spiders from the forest canopy, but will also take berries, small fruits and plant galls.

Breeding:

The Hutton’s vireo nests in an open cup woven of lichens, spider webs, plant down, bark shreds, fine grasses, small green leaves, and moss, lined with grasses and placed in a fork in a branch, 2-8 m above the ground. There the female lays 3-5 white eggs with a few brown speckles, which are incubated by both parents for 14 days. The chicks are fed by both parents and fledge 14-17 days after hatching.

Conservation:

IUCN status – LC (Least Concern)

This species has a very large breeding range and the population has undergone a large increase of 17% per decade over the last 4 decades.