Yesterday morning, Sunday 23 June, 2024, a White-eyed Vireo was found in downtown Brooktondale by an ornithologist who lives nearby. A rare bird alert was issued, and it was observed by at least 14 people, many also associated with the Lab of O, during the day.
A White-eyed Vireo is a small grayish bird washed with olive above and yellow on the sides. It has white wingbars and it has yellow spectacles around each eye, whose iris is white on the adult. It is good to memorize these field marks in advance so you can look for them quickly because the bird likes to stay in shrubby vegetation and only show itself briefly. This individual was mainly along the banks of Six-mile Creek where the stream flows closely between two streets and near a bridge. One observer also waded in the stream for optimum views. Of great assistance in finding this bird was its distinctive song, given intermittently, which Sibley transcribes as “tik-a-purrreeer-chik”. (However, Merlin Sound ID will not help you here because it is programmed only to consider species which are expected at the time of year and in the county in which you are recording. Anything classified as rare by eBird - even if it is only in an unexpected season - will either not be identified at all by Merlin Sound ID, or possibly have a different suggested ID, even though the same recording, if presented to the app within a species’ usual range & season, would be correctly identified.) White-eyed Vireo has been found in the Cayuga Lake Basin in 14 of the years since 1997, an average of every other year. In spring migration a White-eyed Vireo has occasionally been found associating with similar Ruby-crowned Kinglets. White-eyed Vireos winter on the coastal plain from the Gulf of Mexico to the Carolinas. They breed in the eastern US as far north as southern New England, southeastern New York, most of Pennsylvania, southernmost Ontario Province and Michigan, most of Illinois, and southeast Iowa, according to Sibley’s map. - - Dave Nutter -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") Cayugabirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/cayugabirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) aba_DOT_org/birding-news/ Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
