Hutton's Vireo

About the Hutton's Vireo

A small, plain vireo that fools many a birder, Hutton's Vireo is olive-gray with pale wing-bars and a broken white eye-ring - a near-perfect match for the Ruby-crowned Kinglet it often shares the woods with. The tells are subtle: a stouter bill, thicker legs, and slower, more deliberate movements than the twitchy kinglet.

Hutton's Vireos glean insects and spiders from the foliage of oaks and other trees, moving methodically through the mid-canopy, and give a monotonous, repeated call that is one of the steady sounds of their woods.

In Texas they are year-round residents of the oak and oak-juniper woodlands of the central and western parts of the state, from the Hill Country to the Trans-Pecos - one of the few vireos present through the winter here.

A note from behind the lens: separating it from a kinglet is half the fun. Watch for the slower, heavier movements, follow a bird through the oaks, and wait for it to settle on an open twig where the stout bill and bold eye-ring show clearly in soft light.