#hutton’s vireo

[proton-wobbler]

Vireo Showdown; Bracket 3, Poll 1

Fun Fact!

Hutton's: a tiny vireo, easily confused with the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, except for in voice- the song is a single whistle of a note

Bell's: pictured is the Eastern morph, which has a yellow body, whereas the Western morph is almost completely gray

For more information on these birds, check out these Species Features:

Hutton's Vireo | Bell's Vireo

Image Sources: HUVI (Evan Larson); BEVI (Matt Zuro)

[lies]

My best bird photos of April 2023 according to eBird’s users.

Anna’s Hummingbird, Hutton’s Vireo, Great-tailed Grackle, Elegant Tern, Song Sparrow.

[jazzhandsmcleg]

Pics from a hike today at Sabino Canyon: a holiday staple in my family and a great place to find running water at many times of the year (though not today).

You can see a hint of a riparian corridor in the background of the first pic, in the form of yellow sycamore leaves. Even when no water is visible on the surface of the stream bed, it runs within reach of those roots.

There are lots and lots of rocks, many of them quite large...there was an earthquake at some point in the geologically recent past that put a lot of them on the canyon floor for people to admire and climb all over. Good birdwatching, too: we saw cactus wrens, roadrunners, a phainopepla, and either a Hutton's vireo or a ruby-crowned kinglet. (No bird pics because that shit is hard.) In wetter months frogs, toads, and fish are also common, as are footprints of larger animals; lizards and snakes are of course ubiquitous.

The cactus in the third pic is a rare critate saguaro. According to the placard in front of it, science still has no idea why some cacti do this -- or at least it didn't when the placard was installed. This may have been some time ago, as suggested by similar signs all pointing to plants that had since died and rotted away or been removed.

Anyhow, we hiked a short way into the hinterlands/to the border of the Pusch Ridge wilderness before reversing course for lunch by the CCC-era dam. Beautiful weather for it. Then I came home and took a nap. Nice weather for that, too.

[sigmastolen]

friends!!! today was a great bird day, capping a pretty good bird week-or-so

ok so first, one of the recent rainy mornings (last friday maybe) when i was driving through the park on my way to work, i looked at this one tall, barren tree and i saw what i'm pretty sure was a great horned owl huddled in its branches -- it was a big raptor silhouette with what looked like the horns on its head, and we've heard great horned owls calling at night before, but i never imagined i'd see one!

i did a birdfeeder craft some weeks ago and brought home the extra birdseed bc it was a 10 lb bag and i wasn't about to leave it at work for the resident rodents to get at, and i've started putting a couple handfuls out on the backyard fence (cinderblock, so there's a nice wide top), and most days i see sparrows (house, white-crowned, song, chipping) and/or mourning doves come and eat it and they're so cute and it makes me so happy

i've mentioned the red-tailed hawk that lives by the freeway eddies on my way to work before, but friday and saturday i saw two red-tails hanging around that area, which was pretty exciting (red-tails tend to be solitary so mum and i speculate that they're hooking up)

which i guess brings us to today's walk in the park! at first it was raining lightly so no camera today, but i did bring binoculars. on the way there, going up the hill, an entire flock of waterlogged cedar waxwings flew from a barren tree across the street to a leafy tree right above my head, which was the closest i've ever seen them. and then after we crested the hill i checked out the barren tree that i saw the owl in (lots of birds like to sit there so i am in the habit of looking whenever i pass) and not only was there a male american kestrel in that tree, but a red-tailed hawk was sitting in a tree nearby (probably the one i've seen by the fire station and the elementary school -- it seems to hold the east end of the park). and then there were the usual assortment of crows, yellow-rumped warblers in fine breeding colors, western bluebirds, black phoebes, dark-eyed juncos, various sparrows, various hummingbirds (we mainly have anna's and allen's but i'm not discounting rarer ones), geese (canada, egyptian, feral domestic), and mallards... until i crossed under the road to the other part of the park and saw a red-shouldered hawk (it seems to hold the southeast area but i've seen it perched in the adjacent neighborhood as well). i started following it from tree to tree bc i'm obnoxious, and while i was watching i heard another hawk start to yell. the first hawk flew towards it and i saw it land on the same branch as another red-shouldered hawk, and then it mounted the second hawk and they copulated! then one hawks flew away (i think the first one, the male) and i lost it, but i started following the second hawk instead as she went from tree to tree, calling periodically. eventually she went to the high-up crook of a pine tree, holding a pine stick (w/ needles) in her mouth, which she put into the nest she's apparently making there, and she spent some time up there, tamping down the sticks and making adjustments. after a few minutes she started going from tree to tree again, and shortly after i had to go, but it was so cool a;skdjf;

and then there were more of the usual little birds on the way home that i hadn't seen on the way there in the rain, including house finches, lesser goldfinches, more sparrows and bluebirds, and probable bushtits, california towhees, and hutton's vireos.

oh and also while it was still raining there were also thousands, nay, millions of ants on the sidewalk! probably their nests were flooding and they were trying to get out, maybe with their eggs? pictures to follow. it was pretty crazy! and while i was watching the red-shoulder at the nest site there were also two squirrels having a noisy confrontation and jousting at each other along a tree trunk. none of the usual lizards today, though - too cold and wet.

[lies]

Pretty sure this is actually the super-similar-looking Hutton’s Vireo. There are three different characteristics visible in the photo pushing me in that direction:

- the beak is a relatively thick vireo beak rather than the thinner kinglet beak

- there’s no prominent dark bar at the base of the secondaries

- the feet are blue-gray, rather than yellowish

It’s super-interesting how similar the two birds are, given that they aren’t even in the same family. Presumably it’s a case of adaptive mimicry by one or the other, but I don’t know who’s mimicking whom.

Here’s David Sibley’s art showing the two side by side:

ruby crowned kinglet

[birbpolls]

Hutton's Vireo

cr.

Japanese Robin

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[petnews2day]

Hutton’s vireo, a tiny bird that’s ‘the spirit of the live oaks’ – Marin Independent Journal

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/FQrkC

Hutton’s vireo, a tiny bird that’s ‘the spirit of the live oaks’ – Marin Independent Journal

Hutton’s vireos are small, plain birds that can be recognized by their broken eye rings and pair of wing bars. “Zu-wee, zu-wee, zu-wee, zu-wee.” A loud voice drones on and on from somewhere in the canopy of an oak. I search for the source of this monotonous music and eventually encounter a surprisingly small, green-gray […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/FQrkC #BirdNews

[augustheart]

A serenade from a handsome friend!

[hawkpartys]

Looks like a Hutton's Vireo, here are some handy field marks

(ruby crowned left huttons right)

source

Hutton’s vireo on South Fork Trail, Cave Creek Canyon

Not certain but I believe this is a Hutton’s vireo, which looks just like a ruby-crowned kinglet but behaves differently 

(of course we also saw and heard ruby-crowned kinglets singing further down the trail, which made me wonder about this ID)

[kenneturner]

Hutton’s Vireo

Hutton’s Vireo — Image by kenne Hutton’s Vireo is a small songbird that bears an uncanny resemblance to a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. They can befound in the Pacific coastal regions, where they tend to be richer green and yellow. However, in southeasternArizona, they are grayer like this one I photographed recently in the Cienega Creek Preserve.  — kenne  

[proton-wobbler]

Hutton's Vireo

[image ID: a small, dull songbird. the head and body are gray-olive. the bill is small and gray-blue, and the eye is dark and large, with a white, teardrop shaped patch behind it. there is a weak, white wingbar showing. end ID]

Song:

Scientific Name: Vireo huttoni

IUCN Rating: Least Concern

Habitat & Location: coniferous forests are preferred, but can be found in oak and mixed forests, as well as chaparral; non-migratory and lives along the West Coast and Mexico's Sierra Madre.

Fun Fact: a tiny vireo, easily confused with the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, except for in voice- the song is a single whistle of a note

[image ID: a map of North America, focused on the western states and Mexico. there is a purple block running from the south of British Colombia along the Pacific coast to the top of Baja California. there is also a purple area from the south of Arizona and New Mexico down to the very southern tip of Mexico. the purple color means the birds live there year round. end ID]

Image Sources: bird (Evan Larson); map (birds of the world)

[debunkshy]

Hutton’s Vireo Big Bend NP, TX 6-5-18

[anonsally]

birdwatching from my desk

I worked from home today and saw some good birds out the window. There was a ruby-crowned kinglet--I wasn’t sure if it was a Hutton’s vireo, but then I got a glimpse of its ruby crown! Not sure why it was agitated; maybe there was another bird encroaching on its territory? I also saw a territory dispute between two Anna’s hummingbirds--one chased the other away from the Chiapas sage bush. 

Also, I have noticed in several Anna’s hummingbirds that part of the beak is white. But in the photos on Merlin, that doesn’t seem to be the case and it isn’t mentioned anywhere. @lies, am I confabulating? Is this a weird trick of the light?

[musictherapy611]

Daily Bird: Hutton’s Vireo

Range: Pacific coast, southwest continental US

More information: here

Photo: www . glennbartley . com/naturephotography/GB%20Collection/Hutton%27s%20Vireo%20-%2003.jpg

[thelostcanyon]

Hutton's Vireo (Vireo huttoni), Madera Canyon, Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona.

[ryandrawsbirds]

Hutton’s Vireo, Vireo huttoni. May 4, 2017.