Birds of Seabrook Island

COAST BIRDS
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ANECDOTES

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Birds
Identification
Structure
Classification

Species Acct.
▲ Loons
▲ Grebes
▲ Procellarids
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▲ Herons
▲ Ibises
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▲ Waterfowl
▲ Raptors
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▲ Quail
▲ Rails
▲ Limpkin
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▲ Shorebirds
▲ Gulls
▲ Terns
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▲ Doves
▲ Parrots
▲ Cuckoos
▲ Owls
▲ Goatsuckers
▲ Swifts
▲ Hummers
▲ Kingfishers
▲ Woodpckrs
▲ Flycatchers
▲ Shrikes
▲ Vireos
▲ Crows/Jays
▲ Larks
▲ Swallows
▲ Tits
▲ Nuthatches
▲ Creepers
▲ Wrens
▲ Kinglets
▲ Gnatcatchers
▲ Thrushes
▲ Mimids
▲ Starlings
▲ Pipits
▲ Waxwings
▲ NW Warblers
▲ Tanagers
▲ NWSparrows
▲ Cardinalines
▲ Icterids
▲ Finches
▲ OWSparrows

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Order Passeriformes
   Suborder Passeres - Oscines (Song Birds)
      Parvorder Corvida (Superfamily Corvoidea)
            Family Vireonidae - Vireos

Passerines are generally smaller than non-passerines. They have a perching foot with three toes directed forward and the one backward with locking tendons to facilitate perching when their tendons are flexed. All passerines scratch by bringing the foot over the wing. Incubation ranges from 11 -21 days. Young hatch blind with little or no down and spend 10-15 days or so in the nest - development is rapid and parents provide care beyond fledging.
Oscines are passerines with complex syringeal musculature used to produce varied vocalizations.
Corvida (Corvoidea) includes a group of older endemics originating in Australia and New Guinea.
Vireos are small, greenish, arboreal passerines with the edges of their mandibles notched subterminally. They are usually solitary inhabitants of canopies and edges and feed methodically in brush and on the ground.

MORE (Order) MORE (Family)

■□ White-eyed Vireo, Vireo griseus

Cornell USGS Wiki EoL

YEAR ROUND - Common (especially summer), breeds / Common, breeds
DENSE BRUSH, MOIST

The White-eyed Vireo is a stocky vireo with a white iris in adults. They have bright yellow spectacles around the eye, prominent wing bars, and yellow flanks. The throat is whitish and the nape gray. They tend to be secretive but are revealed by their song. They tend to be found in brushy areas, often near water (they are not arboreal). They are busy but usually stay in dense cover. They respond well to imitation Screech Owl calls and will come out to scold a squeaking birder.

White-eyed Vireo,
November. © Kiawah Island Bird Banding

RANGE: The White-eyed Vireo breeds from the Great Lakes south to Florida and the Texas coast. A few may winter in Florida and the coastal plain, in the Bahamas and Bermuda, and south along the east slope of Mexico to Honduras.

BREEDING: Monogamous. One brood in the north, two in the south. They build a nest suspended by the rim in a forked twig. They use twigs, rootlets, bark, grasses and leaves and line the cup with fine materials. They lay 4 (3-5) eggs which both parents incubate for 12-18 (13-15) days. Young are altricial and are tended by both parents. They leave the nest 9-11 days after hatching.

DIET: Their diet is mostly insects (caterpillars, moths, and butterflies in the breeding season). They also eat other insects, spiders, snails, and occasionally small lizards. They eat some berries and small fruits in the winter (20 to 30% of their diet). They forage in dense, low cover. The often hover to take insects from leaves.

VOICE: Their song is a rapid, harsh, nasal series that includes a sharp "chick" and a long, whining "wheerio." There are variations but the song is easy to recognize.

NOTES:
   Checklists -
      Seabrook (breeds). Kiawah - uncommon spring through fall (breeds), occasional winter. Edisto - summer.
      Coastal - fairly common summer resident, uncommon winter visitor. Hilton Head - common permanent resident.
         Cape Romain - occasional/uncommon (breeds)/occasional/occasional.
         Huntington Beach - common April - October; uncommon November; rare December - March.
      Caw Caw - common/common (breeds)/common/uncommon. ACE - common/accidental (breeds)/common/absent.
   Kiawah Island banding - Capn' Sam's spit - 20 (2 recaptures) Sep-Oct 2009; 15 (11 recaptures) Aug-Nov 2010; 5 (1 recapture) Apr 2011;
      (1 recapture) Feb 2012; 18 (11 repeats) Aug-Sep 2012. Cougar Island - 8 (1 repeat) Sep-Oct 2009.
   CBC: ACE 3, 1, 4, 6, 4, 6, 1, 3; Charleston 4, 10, 1, 5, 1, 9, 2, 2;
            Hilton Head 2, 3, 2, 10, 2, 3, 1, 20; Sun City/Okatie 0, 0, 1, 3, 0, 1, 3, 9;
            McClellanville 0, 1, 4, 1, nc, 1, 6, 2; Winyah Bay x, x, 0, 0, 1, 1, 12, 6; Litchfield/Pawley's 1, 4, 0, 1, 0, 6, 3, 2.
   SCBBA: All counties.
   P&G: Common breeder, uncommon visitor winter. Maximum: 67 banded, Mt. Pleasant, 17 September 1984; breeding, 210 singing males, Harleyville. 1979. Egg dates 30 March - 30 May.
   M&P: In winter, this vireo is uncommon on the southwest coast (many are seen in coastal Georgia).
   Avendex: 4 records - at least one bird/month through the year.
   Potter: Common summer resident - late March to early October. The species winters sparingly along the coast.

● Local. I have heard them in the wetter areas along the boardwalk leading to the beach and near the Club House on the golf course toward Ocean Winds. Moccasin Swamp would also offer suitable habitat.

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KEY: ■ Seabrook list □ Kiawah list