Blue-throated Vireo

The Blue-throated Vireo is a stocky small songbird with medium-length tail and fairly heavy, hooked bill and thick legs. It is a moss-green bird with a bluish-gray head and crisp white underparts. The face is set off by clean white “spectacles” and a throat. Blue-throated Vireos forage at middle heights in mature trees, where they move slowly from branch to branch, searching for insects. Many people like to compare the song of the Yellow-throated Vireo to the Blue-throated Vireo. Yellow-throated Vireos sing a broken series of 2- and 3-syllable phrases as if saying “three eigh”. Between bursts of “three eight”, they pause for a second or longer. Some describe the song as a Vireo with a sore throat. The Blue-throated Vireo sings a querulous song that can be rendered as teeyay, tayah, taweeto, teeaytoay, toowip (or “hear me, see me, here I am.”)