Black-capped Vireo

About the Black-capped Vireo

A tiny, restless vireo barely four and a half inches long. The male is striking - a glossy black hood broken by bold white "spectacles," an olive-green back, faint wingbars, and a ruby-red eye. Females and immatures wear a softer gray hood in place of the black.

Black-capped Vireos forage low and fast in dense brush, gleaning insects and spiders while rarely holding still. The male's song is a hurried, scolding jumble of phrases delivered from deep cover, so you usually hear one long before you see it.

Once listed as federally endangered, the species has recovered enough to be down-listed to Near Threatened - a real conservation success story. In Texas it breeds in the scrubby shin-oak and brushy regrowth of the Hill Country and Edwards Plateau in spring and summer, favoring the kind of low, tangled thickets many other birds skip.

A note from behind the lens: this one tests your patience. Work quietly along a brushy edge, let the bird come up to an open twig, and be ready - the black-and-white face against green scrub makes a wonderful frame when it finally clears the cover.