Shrike-babblers, Erpornis and vireos | Vireonidae

Vireo's | Vireos

The bill is heavier than in most insect-eaters of the same size and ends in a small hook, used to pin a caterpillar against a branch and tear it apart. Foraging is strikingly slow and deliberate: the bird works step by step through the canopy, pausing again and again to peer at the underside of the leaves before striking — that calm, almost hesitant movement gives it away sooner than its colours do. The song is a series of short, slightly burry phrases with a pause between each, kept up for hours, through the middle of the day and late into the summer when other species have fallen silent; when disturbed, a nasal, scolding churr. The nest is a neatly woven cup slung by its rim in a horizontal fork, built of bark strips, grass and spider silk and finished on the outside with lichen or papery flakes. Both parents incubate and sit tight as anyone approaches.