Red-Eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus)

County List:

Rule:

Forested or Mixed Forested/Nonforested Landscapes

      (Oak (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Assorted Hardwoods (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Northern Hardwoods (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Northern Hardwoods (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Upland Hardwoods (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Bottomland Hardwoods (Pole or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))

Habitat List:

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Literature:

Habitat: While this vireo accepts a wide variety of open deciduous habitats, including second-growth scrub, orchards, and areas of residential development which have retained groves of mature trees, it achieves its greatest population densities in continuous forest stands. The typical vireo pensile-cup nest is usually built at a height of 1.5 to 3 m in the forest understory or lower canopy. Females forage at that level, while males sing and forage in the mid-to-upper canopy. Accordingly, Red-eyed Vireos require mature forest which supports moderate-to-dense canopy and understory layers.

In the Atlas Habitat Survey, Red-eyed Vireos were found most frequently in mature mesic deciduous forest. In the Upper Peninsula, this habitat type was so prevalent that all other communities were minor, by comparison, in their representation. In the northern Lower Peninsula, dry deciduous forest took a close second place with mixed mesic forest third. In the southern Lower Peninsula, wet and dry deciduous forest types ranked second and third, respectively. Generally, among all habitat types statewide, mature forest growth was favored over immature growth.

Future prospects for this species in Michigan probably hinge primarily on the rate and extent of forest loss through clearcutting and fragmentation.

Habitat: Breeding: Open deciduous and second-growth woodlands (less often in mixed woods) with thick undergrowth of saplings. Frequents residential areas with abundant shade trees that provide a continuous canopy. Ubiquitous and common in deciduous woodland, yet shows preference for mesic stands in the deciduous forest.

Special Habitat Requirements: Deciduous trees. A continuous canopy rather than presence of an understory may be the chief habitat requirement.

Habitat: Woodlands, shade trees, groves. Breeds in deciduous and mixed forest, occasionally in conifers. Also well-wooded suburbs, orchards, parks clearings or edges of burns, areas along streams and in solid forests, or prairie groves.

Diet: Mostly insects, also berries. In summer, feeds mainly on insects, including caterpillars, moths, beetles, wasps, bees, ants, bugs, flies, walking sticks, cicadas, treehoppers, scale insects; also some snails and spiders. Also eats many berries, especially in late summer, including those of Virginia creeper, sumac, elderberry, blackberry, and dogwood.

Nest: Placed usually 5-30 feet above the ground, sometimes 2-60 feet up, in deciduous shrub or sapling. Nest is a compact, dainty cup, its rim woven onto a horizontal forked twig. Made of strips of bark, grass stems, weeds, rootlets, spider webs, and cocoons. Frequently parasitized by cowbirds

Conservation Status: Undoubtedly declined historically with clearing of eastern forest, but current population seems stable.