vireo

Most species are found in Middle America and northern South America. Thirteen species of true vireos occur farther north, in the United States, Bermuda[http://www.audubon.bm/birding/bermuda-birds/115-white-eyed-vireo White-eyed vireo], Audubon Society of Bermuda and Canada; of these all but Hutton's vireo are migratory. Members of the family seldom fly long distances except in migration.Salaman, Paul & Barlow, Jon C. 2003. Vireos. Pp. 478–479 in; Perrins, C. ed. The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books, Oxford. {{ISBN|1-55297-777-3}} They inhabit forest environments, with different species preferring forest canopies, undergrowth, or mangrove swamps.

A few species in the genus Vireo have appeared on the eastern side of the Atlantic as vagrants to the Western Palearctic.{{cite web |url=https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=WPA |title=Western Palearctic |publisher=Avibase |access-date=27 February 2017}}

The resident species occur in pairs or family groups that maintain territories all year (except Hutton's vireo, which joins mixed feeding flocks). Most of the migrants defend winter territories against conspecifics. The exceptions are the complex comprising the red-eyed vireo, the yellow-green vireo, the black-whiskered vireo, and the Yucatan vireo, which winter in small wandering flocks.

File:Cyclarhis gujanensis.jpg is described as a whistled phrase with the rhythm {{audio

|Cyclarhis_gujanensis1.ogg|Do you wash every week?}}]]

Males of most species are persistent singers. Songs are usually rather simple, monotonous in some species of the Caribbean littoral and islands, and most elaborate and pleasant to human ears in the Chocó vireo and the peppershrikes.

The nests of many tropical species are unknown. Of those that are known, all build a cup-shaped nest that hangs from branches. The female does most of the incubation, spelled by the male except in the red-eyed vireo complex.

All members of the family eat some fruit but mostly insects and other arthropods. They take prey from leaves and branches; true vireos also flycatch, and the gray vireo takes 5 percent of its prey from the ground.

File:White-eyed vireo (Vireo griseus bermudianus) in Bermuda.jpg (Vireo griseus bermudianus) in Bermuda]]

The family Vireonidae is related to the crow-like birds in family Corvidae and the shrikes in family Laniidae as part of superfamily Corvoidea. As currently circumscribed the family is made up of eight genera.{{cite taxon|IOC|title=Vireos, shrike-babblers |url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/bow/shrikes/ |version=14.2 |access-date=18 January 2025}}{{cite BOW|title=Vireonidae. Vireos, Shrike-Babblers, and Erpornis. |url=https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/vireon1/cur/introduction |access-date=18 January 2025}}

Traditionally the family was considered to include four New World genera containing the true vireos (Vireo), the greenlets (Hylophilus), the shrike-vireos (Vireolanius) and the peppershrikes (Cyclarhis). However, phylogenetic studies found Hylophilus to be polyphyletic, with the greenlets split into three distinct groups: the "scrub" greenlets in a restricted Hylophilus, the "canopy" greenlets in resurrected genus Pachysylvia and the tawny-crowned greenlet in new genus Tunchiornis.{{cite journal |title=A multilocus phylogeny of a major New World avian radiation: The Vireonidae |date=2014 |last1=Slager |first1=David L. |last2=Battey |first2=C.J. |last3=Bryson |first3=Robert W. |last4=Voelker |first4=Gary |last5=Klicka |first5=John |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=80 |pages=95–104|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2014.07.021 |pmid=25109651 |bibcode=2014MolPE..80...95S }}{{cite journal | title=Polyphyly of Hylophilus and a new genus for the Tawny-crowned Greenlet
(Aves: Passeriformes: Vireonidae) | date=2014 | last1=Slager | first1=David L. | last2=Klicka | first2=John | journal=Zootaxa | volume=3884 | issue=2 | pages=194–196 | doi=10.11646/zootaxa.3884.2.8 | pmid=25543778 |url=https://inpn.mnhn.fr/docs-web/docs/download/160272 | url-access=subscription }}{{cite web |title=Proposal (661). Revise the linear sequence of Vireonidae |website=South American Classification Committee |url=https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCprop661.htm |access-date=18 January 2025}}

In addition, biochemical studies have identified two babbler genera (Pteruthius and Erpornis) which may be Old World members of this family.Reddy, Sushma & Cracraft, Joel (2007): Old World Shrike-babblers (Pteruthius) belong with New World Vireos (Vireonidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 44 (3): 1352–1357. {{doi|10.1016/j.ympev.2007.02.023}} Observers have commented on the vireo-like behaviour of the Pteruthius shrike-babblers, but apparently no-one suspected the biogeographically unlikely possibility of vireo relatives in Asia. Some recent taxonomic treatements, such as the IOC taxonomy followed here, include Pteruthius and Erpornis in Vireionidae, whereas other place them in their own families Pteruthidae and Erpornidae.{{cite journal |doi=10.25226/bboc.v142i2.2022.a8 |title=Pteruthiidae and Erpornithidae (Aves: Corvides): Two new family-group names for babbler-like outgroups of the vireos (Vireonidae) |date=2022 |last1=Sangster |first1=George |last2=Cibois |first2=Alice |last3=Reddy |first3=Sushma |journal=Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club |volume=142 |issue=2 |doi-access=free }}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://ibc.lynxeds.com/family/vireos-vireonidae Vireos (Vireonidae)] information, including 33 species with videos and 40 with photographs at the Internet Bird Collection
• {{Wikisource-inline|list=
• {{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Vireo|short=x|noicon=x}}
• {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Vireo|year=1905|noicon=x}}
• {{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Vireo|noicon=x}}

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Category:Birds of the Americas