ML71345591
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age and sex
- Unknown age, Unknown sex - X
- Sounds
- Call
- Playback
- Playback used
Media notes
Scolding calls in response to mobbing tapes. There are three fragments separated by brief pauses; I extracted these fragments from a recording that I had running along for over an hour, after I had first noticed that the Vireo was calling now and then. Note that in the third fragment, the louder and lower-pitched scolding call is not the Bell's Vireo, but a House Wren. Otherwise, all the scolding calls are produced by the Vireo.
Observation details
Seen from Loggerhead Road around where it forks at the start of the parking lot of the NC aquarium. The bird was mostly in the trees precisely here: 33.96345, -77.92663. (However, I would only ever see it after playing mobbing tapes (with, mostly, scolding White-eyed Vireo and calling Eastern Screech Owls), and now suspect that it may mostly forage further away from (south of) the road, which is on the aquarium grounds. A boardwalk runs by this spot and may be an additional or perhaps better place to look for it, but this is behind a gate and one would probably need to pay the aquarium entrance fee.) I also saw this bird yesterday (see http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39607551) but then I did not see it well enough to be certain of the ID. Therefore, I searched for 3.5 hours this morning to no avail ... but fortunately found it again this afternoon. In short, the bird was a vireo with wing bars, a very weak facial pattern, and extensively soft yellow underparts. The bird looked smaller and especially more slender than a White-eyed Vireo, and not giving the bull-headed impression that White-eyed (and e.g., Blue-headed) often gives. From the belly downwards, the underparts were nearly evenly soft/pastel yellow (that is, the undertail coverts, the flanks and the area between the legs were all similarly yellow ... if anything, the undertail coverts, rather than the flanks, were brightest), and the yellow colour faded to whitish from the upper belly/breast upwards. The breast and throat were thus a faint yellow-white, not gray like usually in White-eyed. The bird often gave a subtly "capped" appearance because the side of the neck was also rather pale, similar to the upper breast. Two wing bars were obvious yet narrow, especially the upper. The head pattern was overall very faint; lacking yellow and lacking a contrastingly dark lore. From most angles, the most striking pale area was *above* the eye rather than in front of it, and these spectacles clearly extended a bit *behind* the eye as well, such that quick views of the head would give the impression of the presence of a faint supercilium more than anything else (which in combination with the extensively yellow underparts would give Philadelphia Vireo vibes -- until double-checking the wing bars!). This "superciliaried look" was probably accentuated by the fact that the bird had a dark eyestripe extending behind the eye, but this was also very faint and did not show in all angles/lighting. The bill gave a fairly pale impression overall and in one instance with good lighting from below the lower mandible, in particular, was clearly seen to be pale. The bird was rather quick and mobile, appeared oddly shy, and would regularly flick its tail downwards. It never went below ca. 3 m up in the trees, and was mostly at ca. 5-7 m up. In a few instances, the bird made a soft scolding call (clearly being agitated by the mobbing tapes), which I recorded, and have now (Oct 9) uploaded.
Technical information
- Recorder
- Sony PCM-M10
- Microphone
- internal mic
- Accessories
- Original file size
- 6.05 MB