From Opus

Eastern subspecies V. b. bellii
Photo by jmorlan
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California, USA, October 2005

Vireo bellii

[edit] Identification

12-13 cm

• Dull olive-grey above
• Whitish below
• Faint white eye ring and wing bars
• Olive green rump
• Grey-black bill
• Brown eyes
• Dark grey-blue-black legs
  

Sexes alike

[edit] Distribution

Western United States and northern Mexico; winters from Mexico south to Nicaragua. Accidental vagrant to eastern United States.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

Polytypic. Consists of four subspecies.

• V. b. medius:

• South-western Texas to southern Durango and southern Coahuila; winters to Oaxaca

• V. b. bellii:

• Central and southern US; winters from southern Mexico to northern Nicaragua

• V. b. arizonae (Arizona):

• South-western US; winters from Baja and central Sonora to Colima

• V. b. pusillus (Least):

• Arid southern California; winters to southern Baja

[edit] Habitat

Arid scrubland areas.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes insects and spiders.

[edit] Breeding

It makes a well-camouflaged basket-like cup nest from grass, straw-like stems, plant fibres, small skeletonized leaves, paper, and strips of bark fastened with spider silk;it is lined with fine, brown or yellow grass stems. Outside it is decorated with spider egg cases. 3-5 white with sparse spotting eggs are laid.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Wikipedia
3. eNature
4. BF Member observations

• List of references

[edit] External Links