Red-eyed vireo Vireo olivaceus

Identification Tips:

• Length: 5 inches
• Thick bill with hooked upper mandible
• Sexes similar
• Red eye
• White supercilium bordered above by a dark line and below by a dark eye line
• Gray crown contrasts with olive-green back and upper wings
• No wing bars
• White underparts
• Yellowish cast to flanks and undertail coverts in fresh plumage
• Blue-gray legs
• Juvenile has brown eye and yellower underparts than adult

Similar species:

Warbling Vireo has a grayer back, no black borders to the white supercilium, and a dark eye. Philadelphia Vireo has yellower underparts, a less distinct supercilium and a dark eye. In Florida the Black-whiskered Vireo can be distinguished from the Red-eyed by its black malar streak. In South Texas the rare Yellow-green Vireo is much yellower below and has much paler black borders to the supercilium than the Red-eyed. All other vireos have wing bars.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.