Slaty Vireo

The slaty vireo is 11.5 to 12 cm (4.5 to 4.7 in) long; one individual weighed 11.8 g (0.42 oz) and two others 12.3 g (0.43 oz). "Few vireos possess such striking plumage as [the] Slaty Vireo", whose appearance is unique in its range. The sexes have the same plumage. Adults of the nominate subspecies have an olive green crown. They have blackish lores on an otherwise slate gray face. Their upperparts are slate with an olive green tinge on the rump and uppertail coverts. Their wing coverts are olive green. Their wing's flight feathers and tail feathers are dull black or blackish slate with wide olive green edges on their outer webs. Their chin is white, their throat, breast, and flanks slate gray, and their belly and undertail coverts white. Juveniles have an olive head and upperparts, two buffy lemon wing bars, and whitish underparts with dusky sides to the breast. Subspecies V. b. browni has an olive green tinge from its lower back to its uppertail coverts and paler gray underparts than the nominate. Both subspecies have a white iris, a black bill, and dark gray or dusky legs and feet.

The slaty vireo is found inland in southwestern Mexico from southern Jalisco south to central Oaxaca and somewhat east into western Veracruz. It inhabits scrublands, often those with oaks, the understory and edges of pine-oak forest, and thickets. In elevation it ranges between 1,200 and 3,000 m (3,900 and 9,800 ft).

The slaty vireo's diet is not known though it is assumed to eat mostly arthropods. It forages mostly in the understory and is described as "rather skulking".