Plumbeous Vireo

The plumbeous vireo is 12.4 to 13.8 cm (4.9 to 5.4 in) long and weighs about 12 to 20 g (0.42 to 0.71 oz). The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies V. p. plumbeus have a neutral gray crown and nape, a wide white stripe above the lores, a wide white eye-ring, a dusky stripe through the eye-ring, and neutral gray ear coverts. Their upperparts are neutral gray with an olive-green tinge on the rump. Their wing coverts are blackish gray with whitish tips that show as two wing bars. Their remiges are blackish gray with pale olive gray edges. Their rectrices are blackish gray with wide white edges on the outermost pair. Their underparts are mostly nearly white with smudgy pale grayish olive on the sides of the breast and, in some individuals, very pale sulfur yellow on the flanks. Subspecies V. p. gravis is larger than the nominate with a darker crown and more olive (less gray) edges on the secondaries. V. p. notius is mostly like the nominate though some individuals have a somewhat greener back and yellower flanks. V. p. montanus has a blue-gray crown, a greenish back, and greenish yellow flanks. All subspecies have a brown iris, a black bill with a grayish base to the mandible, and bluish gray legs and feet.

The plumbeous vireo has a disjunct distribution. The subspecies are found thus:

V. p. plumbeus: west-central U. S. in southeastern Montana, southwestern South Dakota, and from south-central Idaho, northeastern Utah, and Wyoming south through Nevada, eastern California, Arizona, western Colorado and New Mexico, and extreme western Texas into Mexico as far as Guerrero and south-central Oaxaca V. p. gravis: east-central Mexico in Hidalgo, western Veracruz, and Puebla V. p. notius: Belize V. p. montanus: from southeastern Oaxaca and Chiapas south through central Guatemala and Honduras into northern Nicaragua The species has also occurred casually or accidentally in Oregon, Louisiana, and a few other locations. The plumbeous vireo inhabits a variety of landscapes in the temperate and subtropical zones. In the U. S. it primarily is found in coniferous and mixed pine-oak forests including those dominated by ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and piñon-juniper complexes. It also occurs in riparian woodlands. Further south into Mexico it mostly occurs in pine-oak and oak scrublands. In migration and when overwintering it inhabits a greater variety, adding gallery forest, mangroves, plantations, evergreen forest, and thorn forest. In Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras it inhabits pine-oak forest and pine savanna. …

During the breeding season the plumbeous vireo feeds almost entirely on arthropods. In winter it adds fruits to its diet. It feeds at all levels of its habitat, taking most food by gleaning from leaves and branches. It also gleans food while hovering and by capturing in mid-air. In winter it often joins mixed-species feeding flocks.