Hutton’s Vireo

Hutton’s Vireo (Vireo huttoni) is a small songbird. It is approximately 5 inches (12–13 cm) in length, dull olive-gray above and below. They have a faint white eye-ring and faint white wing bars. It closely resembles a ruby-crowned kinglet, but has a thicker bill and is slightly larger in size. Its most common song is a repeated “chu-wee, or chew”, but will have other variations. Its call is a mewing chatter. It is found from southern British Columbia in Canada to central Guatemala in Central America. Recent DNA studies suggest this species may be split into at least 2 different species, with coastal Pacific birds showing enough genetic variation when compared to interior ones.

About Hutton’s Vireos

These Vireos make hanging cup nests suspended from forks of trees. The female lays 3–4 eggs. The eggs are mostly white in color, with scattered brown spotting. It prefers deciduous-mixed forests and is particularly fond of live oak. It feeds by gleaning insects as it deliberately moves through the forest canopy.

The scientific name of the bird commemorates the U.S. surveyor William Rich Hutton. Imagine having an entire bird species named after you! That seems like every bird-watcher’s dream come true. Spotting this bird would also be a dream come true. This basic description will help you identify pictures of this bird, but when birdwatching in the wild, it is necessary to go into further detail about the bird you’re watching out for!

Isn’t this basic description alone so fascinating? Imagine going in-depth and diving right into the world of Hutton’s Vireos! This article will do just that; dive right in to get a better understanding of these birds so you can spot them better in the wild. We have some of the most vital information on Hutton’s Vireos for this purpose. Today you will learn:

● Hutton’s Vireos Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Hutton’s Vireos Size, Eating behavior, Habitat
● Hutton’s Vireos Range and Migration, Nesting

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Hutton’s Vireos Color Pattern

Hutton’s Vireos are grayish olive above, and pale gray below (sometimes with pale olive tones to the flanks). Their wings are darker and have two wing bars. Hutton’s Vireo’s faces show an incomplete eyering, thicker in front of and behind the eye (similar to the Ruby-crowned Kinglet’s face pattern). Their legs are mildly bluish as well.

Adults have broad white eye-rings on their olive-grey heads. Their wings and tails tend to have a yellowish edging to them, with two bold whitish wing bars. Their underparts range from mostly olive to whitish, and their wing bars are usually very bold. Like most bird species, juvenile Hutton’s Vireos tend to be a little more scattered with their coloration, and aren’t that bright and obvious to look at. Males and females of this species are very similar, with little to no color differences.

Description and Identification

Hutton’s Vireos are small greenish songbirds of the Pacific Coast that bear an uncanny resemblance to Ruby-crowned Kinglets, even down to the off-center eyering, but are thicker-billed and more sluggish. They also have bluish legs. Over most of their range, Hutton’s Vireos live in coniferous, evergreen oak, and mixed woodlands, where they forage methodically for insects fairly high in the trees. Hutton’s Vireos are unusual among North American vireos in that
they don’t migrate. Individuals in coastal regions tend to be richer green and yellow than those in arid inland regions, which are grayer.

They have thick bills and are found in forested areas with a mix of oak and conifers, usually foraging in the middle levels. They often hang out in mixed flocks with other small songbirds, which could make it difficult to identify them if you don’t know what to look (and listen) out for.

These birds are described as small and chunky songbirds, making it relatively easy to spot them in the wild, despite the fact that they hang out in big crowds with other songbirds. Apart from their obvious color and size, they also have quite distinct calls and songs which set them apart from other birds. When watching out for Hutton’s Vireos, one must listen for distinctive repetitive songs of clear or buzzy notes.

Hutton’s Vireo Song

Hutton’s Vireos songs consist of a rising “zu-wee” or a descending “zo-zoo”, and is repeated over and over again at about one per second for as long as 10 minutes.

Apart from their distinct song, Hutton’s Vireos also have calls that set them apart from other songbirds. The most often heard calls are a nasal chu and a flat chit.

Hutton’s Vireo Size

These birds are small Vireos with large heads, short bills, rather short wings, and moderately long tails. Hutton’s Vireos do not portray sexual dimorphism, and so both the males and females of the species are pretty much the same in size.

Both sexes average at a length of 3.9-4.7 inches, with wingspans that range in 7.5-8.3 inches. These birds, once fully grown, weigh 9-15 grams on average.

Hutton’s Vireo Behavior

These birds are seen foraging slowly along branches at middle heights and above, searching for insects, which they capture by picking from twigs and leaves or by hover-gleaning. During the non-breeding season, pairs join large mixed flocks of woodland songbirds. They Forage in trees and shrubs by hopping from twig to twig, pausing to peer about as they search for insects. They often hover momentarily to pick items from the foliage.

Hutton’s Vireos often appear in twos, even in fall and winter, when they accompany mixed-species flocks of Kinglets, Bushtits, Titmice, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Warblers, and Woodpeckers. This suggests that some pairs remain together year-round. The courtship display, seldom seen, involves the male spreading the tail, fluffing the body plumage, and giving a nasal call. Males begin to sing in spring, to mark territory and attract a mate or stimulate nesting activities in a
long-term mate. During this season, both males and females are territorial and chase other Hutton’s Vireos from the territory.

They may also attack other vireo species that come too near the nest. When agitated, they flick their wings quickly, in a manner very similar to Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Male and female remain close together when nesting, often calling back and forth. Both birds incubate the eggs and feed the nestlings.

Hutton’s Vireo Diet

Their diets consist mostly of insects and some berries. Though their diet is not known in detail, they’re known to feed mainly on insects (including some that seem large for the small size of the bird) such as caterpillars, beetles, and crickets, as well as spiders. They also eat some berries and small fruits, and some plant galls.

Hutton’s Vireos move slowly and deliberately through the foliage in search of food, mostly insects and spiders. In most parts of the range, they forage within the tree foliage, fairly high in the tree, and also investigate the tips of branches. They take prey from branches and leaves, picking them quickly as they move along a branch, or hovering or hanging upside-down to glean them from the tips of leaves or needle clusters. They chase and fly after flying insects as well. Their known prey items include assassin bugs, stinkbugs, leaf bugs, leafhoppers, planthoppers, scale insects, lady beetles, weevils, and caterpillars. Plant matter in their diet includes berries of buckthorn, poison oak, and elderberry as well as sap from sapsucker wells.

Hutton’s Vireo Habitat

These birds are known to live year-round in evergreen oak, coniferous, and mixed forests, as well as in-stream corridors and chaparral on offshore islands. Through their large and fragmented range, Hutton’s Vireos favor sizable (> 50-acre) coniferous, oak, and mixed forests, but in some areas, they also inhabit stream corridors and chaparral. Their habitat ranges from seaside forests to montane forests above 11,800 feet in elevation, from British Columbia to Guatemala.

Range and Migration

Hutton’s Vireos are resident birds and are therefore non-migratory in nature. Their territories have large ranges in the areas that they reside, but they are not known to migrate vast expanses of land and air!

Hutton’s Vireo Lifecycle

Hutton’s Vireos lay 4 eggs, sometimes 3-5, and very rarely fewer than that. Their eggs are white with brown specks near the larger end. Incubation is done by both the males and females of the species, and the incubation period lasts around 14-16 days. Cowbirds often lay eggs in nests of the Hutton’s Vireo species.

Both parents help in feeding nestlings. Once the nestlings are well-fed and can fend for themselves, they leave the nest as young birds at about 14 days of age. They then go on to live long and happy lives, with the oldest recorded Hutton’s Vireo living to see 13 years and 6 months!

Nesting

The females of the species select the nest site, usually within the forest interior, in a fork of twigs near the end of a branch and often completely hidden by overhanging foliage or lichen. Most nests are in oak or conifers, sometimes in manzanita, at an average of 16 feet above the ground.

Males and females work together to build cup nests that are suspended from a forked branch, with the exterior heavily draped with mosses, lichens, grasses, spider cocoons, feathers, leaves, bark, and string, all held together with spiderwebs. Their nests are roughly 3 inches across, with the interior cup about 2.5 inches across and 2 inches deep.

Anatomy of Hutton’s Vireos

Hutton’s Vireos are small and chunky songbirds that often bear resemblance to Ruby-crowned Kinglets and other small Vireos. Though they may look similar, they are distinguishable through their olive-green plumages and their thick bills. They also have distinct legs that are mildly blue-tinted. They also have very bold wingbars and their wings have white on them as well. Their underparts are usually greyish in color. These birds are also easy to spot because of their distinct eye-rings, which are incomplete and thicker in front of and behind the eye. Overall, they make for a very cute sight.

Final Thoughts

Now that you know more about Hutton’s Vireos in detail, they should be quite easy to spot in the wild! All you have to do is lurk around evergreen forests and keep a look and listen out for small olive-green birds that have sweet calls and songs to sing.

Luckily for you and for this lovely bird species, their populations are quite abundant and they are therefore granted a spot of “Least Concern” on the IUCN, making it that much easier for you to spot them in their natural habitats.

Ornithology

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The most common types of bird watching binoculars for viewing Hutton’s Vireos are 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. Bird Watching Academy & Camp sells really nice 8×21 binoculars and 10×42 binoculars. You can view and purchase them here.

Hutton’s Vireo Stickers

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Bird Feeders For Hutton’s Vireos

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Bird Houses For Hutton’s Vireos

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