July 04, 2006

Feed me!

Plumbeous vireo, southern Colorado, July 4, 2006
M. was sitting by her favorite contemplation tree when she noticed some activity in the oakbrush. A pair of plumbeous vireos were feeding their nestlings.

The plumbeous vireo used to be the gray ("plumbeous" = lead-colored") Rocky Mountain race of the solitary vireo before the last round of species-splitting. My old copy of Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds contains nest descriptions, though, which Sibley's guide does not. "A neat basket hung from low branch of tree." Yep.

The song (132 kb WAV file), via Nature Songs.

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