Last week I was lucky enough to get a late spring visitor. I thought that most of the migrating birds would have passed through this area earlier in the year. I hadn’t seen any migrating species in a few weeks, so I was surprised to see this beautiful little yellow throated vireo (Vireo flavifrons). These little birds winter in the very southern United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. They breed in the northeastern US. Since it’s late in the migratory season it may be that the bird has chosen to breed here. We are just south of their regular southernmost breeding regions, but I haven’t heard or seen it since that day.

Yellow throated vireos like to live and to breed in open, mature deciduous forests. They tend to prefer forest edges where they can easily find the insects (mainly caterpillars and moths) that make up most of their diets. They are usually seen foraging in the trees where they capture insects as they move along the branches. They build a small cup shaped nest, usually high up in the canopy of a tree, where they lay 2-3 eggs. Both parents incubate the eggs and tend to the young. Very little else is known about their lifestyles or habits since they have not been studied much. Their populations did decline sharply back when DDT was being used heavily for pest control. Since then the populations are slowly regrowing, but because they live mainly in the trees tops, exact counts are difficult to obtain. Needless to say, I was quite excited to get the opportunity to see and photograph this uncommon bird.