CDC Logo

BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary


Vireo gilvus
Warbling Vireo

 
Scientific Name: Vireo gilvus (Vieillot, 1808)
English Name: Warbling Vireo
 
Classification / Taxonomy
Scientific Name - Concept Reference: American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1998. Check-list of North American birds. Seventh edition. American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C. [as modified by subsequent supplements and corrections published in The Auk]. Also available online: http://www.aou.org/.
Classification Level: Species
Species Group: Vertebrate Animal
Species Code: B-WEWV
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family
Animalia Craniata Aves Passeriformes Vireonidae
   
Conservation Status / Legal Designation
Global Status: G5
Provincial Status: S5B (Mar 2015)
BC List: Yellow
Provincial FRPA list:   
Provincial Wildlife Act:
COSEWIC Status:
SARA Schedule:
General Status Canada: 4 - Secure (2005)
Migratory Bird Convention Act: Y
   
Ecology & Life History
General Description:
Global Reproduction Comments: Male and female, in turn, incubate 4, sometimes 3-5, eggs for about 12 days. Altricial young are tended by both parents, leave the nest in about 12-14 days.
Global Ecology Comments: Density figures of 13.4 birds/40 ha have been recorded in flatland aspen; 60.0/40 ha in scrub-meadow; 5 pairs/40 ha in Douglas fir forest (Bureau of Land Management, no date). Nests often parasitized by Brown-headed Cowbirds, suffering up to 80% parasitism in some areas; this high rate, combined with the fact that parasitized nests typically produce no vireo young, can create sink populations, even in areas where vireos are common (Ward and Smith 2000).
Migration Characteristics:
(Global / Provincial)		 
    Nonmigrant:
    Local Migrant:
    Distant Migrant:
    Within Borders Migrant: 		N /
N /
Y /
na /
Global Migration Comments: Migrates to U.S. nesting range April-May (Terres 1980).
Habitats:
(Type / Subtype / Dependence)
Global Habitat Comments: Open deciduous and mixed deciduous-coniferous woodland, riparian forest and thickets, pine-oak association, orchards, and parks; in migration and winter in a wide variety of forest, woodland and scrub habitats (AOU 1983). In winter seems to prefer light woodland and savanna groves (Stiles and Skutch 1989). Usually nests at end of branch in a deciduous tree, 9-18 m above ground, or 1-3.5 m above ground, in shrub or orchard tree (Terres 1980).
Food Habits: Invertivore: Adult, Immature
Global Food Habits Comments: Insectivorous. Feeds on caterpillars, beetles, grasshoppers, ants, etc. Also eats spiders and some berries. Forages in trees.
Global Phenology: Diurnal: Adult, Immature
Provincial Phenology:
(1st half of month/
2nd half of month)
Colonial Breeder: N
Length(cm)/width(cm)/Weight(g): 14/ / 12
Elevation (m) (min / max): Global: 
Provincial: 
   
 
Distribution
Endemic: N
Global Range Comment: BREEDS: British Columbia, southern Mackenzie, central Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, western Ontario, northern Minnesota, northern Michigan, southern Ontario, southern Quebec, southern Maine, southeastern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, south to Baja California, northern Mexico, Texas, southern Louisiana, northern Alabama, western North Carolina, and southeastern Virginia. WINTERS: northern Mexico to Nicaragua, casually to Costa Rica (Stiles and Skutch 1989). GILVUS: breeds from southwestern Alberta, central Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba east across extreme southern Canada to New Brunswick, and south to southeastern Texas, southern Louisiana (formerly), central Mississippi, northern Alabama, southeastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, and Virginia, west to southeastern Montana, northern and eastern North Dakota, eastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, Kansas, and southeastern Colorado; winters in Mexico and northern Central America south to northeastern Costa Rica (Sibley and Monroe 1990). SWAINSONI: breeds from southeastern Alaska, northern British Columbia, west-central and southwestern Mackenzie, western and northern Alberta, central Wyoming, southwestern South Dakota, and western Nebraska south to southern California, southern Nevada, central and southeastern Arizona, mountains of Mexico (to Mexico, Morelos, central Oaxaca), southern New Mexico, wetsern Texas, and Colorado (except southeast), and southern Baja California; winters in Mexico and northern Central America south to El Salvador (Sibley and Monroe 1990).
 
Authors / Contributors
Global Information Author: HAMMERSON, G.; MINOR REVISIONS BY S. CANNINGS
Last Updated: Jan 18, 1995
Provincial Information Author:
Last Updated:
   
References and Related Literature
American Ornithologists' Union (AOU). 1983. Check-list of North American Birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas. 877 pp.
Barlow, J.C. 1980. Patterns of ecological interactions among migrant and resident vireos on the wintering grounds. Pages 79-107 in A. Keast and E.S. Morton, editors. Migrant birds in the neotropics: ecology, distribution, and conservation. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
Bureau of Land Management. Life History Summaries.
Campbell, R.W., N.K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, J.M. Cooper, G.W. Kaiser, M.C.E. McNall and G.E.J. Smith 1997. The Birds of British Columbia, Vol. 3, Passerines: Flycatchers through Vireos. UBC Press in cooperation with Environ. Can., Can. Wildl. Serv. and B.C. Minist. Environ., Lands and Parks, Wildl. Branch. 700pp.
Droege, S., and J.R. Sauer. 1990. North American Breeding Bird Survey, annual summary, 1989. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Report 90(8). 22 pp.
Hagan, J. M., III, and D. W. Johnston, editors. 1992. Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. xiii + 609 pp.
Harrison, C. 1978. A Field Guide to the Nests, Eggs and Nestlings of North American Birds. Collins, Cleveland, Ohio.
Johnson, N. K., R. M. Zink, and J. A. Marten. 1988. Genetic evidence for relationships in the avian family Vireonidae. Condor 90:428-445.
Keast, A., and E.S. Morton. 1980. Migrant birds in the neotropics: ecology, distribution, and conservation. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
Murray, B.W., W.B. McGillivray, and J.C. Barlow. 1994. The use of cytochrome B sequence variation in estimation of phylogeny in the Vireonidae. Condor 96(4):1037-1054.
Sauer, J.R., and S. Droege. 1992. Geographical patterns in population trends of Neotropical migrants in North America. Pages 26-42 in J.M. Hagan, III, and D.W. Johnston, editors. Ecology and conservation of Neotropical migrant landbirds. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
Sibley, C.G., and B.L. Monroe, Jr. 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. xxiv + 1111 pp.
Stiles, F. G. and A. F. Skutch. 1989. A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 511 pp.
Terres, J. K. 1980. The Audubon Society encyclopedia of North American birds. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
Ward, D., and J. N. M. Smith. 2000. Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism results in a sink population in Warbling Vireos. Auk 117:337-344.
 

Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.

Suggested Citation:

B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 1995. Species Summary: Vireo gilvus. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 8, 2026).