All species › Passerines › Shrike-babblers, Erpornis and vireos › Green Shrike-Vireo
Green Shrike-Vireo | Vireolanius pulchellus
Groene klauwiervireo | Vireón esmeralda | Assobiador-verde
The Green Shrike-Vireo is a stocky, mainly bright green vireo with a heavy, hooked bill, living in the canopy of humid lowland forest in Central America. In the guide area it is known only as a very rare vagrant, from the far north-west of Colombia near the border with Panama.
Voice
A monotonously repeated, clear whistle, such as peer-peer-peer, kept up for long periods from the treetops.
Recording: Daniel Errichetti — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm, stocky, with a large head, a heavy bill hooked at the tip and a short tail. Almost entirely bright green, with blue on the crown and hindneck and a yellow throat. There is no supercilium. The sexes are nearly alike; young birds are duller.
Confusion species
Yellow-browed Shrike-Vireo Vireolanius eximius of northern Colombia has a broad yellow supercilium and a yellow spot below the eye. Slaty-capped Shrike-Vireo Vireolanius leucotis has a grey head with yellow and white stripes and a pale eye.
Habitat
Canopy of humid lowland forest, tall secondary forest and forest edges, in Central America from sea level to about 1200 m. With slow movements it searches the foliage for insects and caterpillars. The nest is a suspended cup high in a tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In the guide area recorded only as a very rare vagrant in north-western Colombia, near the border with Panama; there is no regular site or season. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area resident from southern Mexico to Panama.
How and when to look
Records in the guide area are exceptional. In forest along the Panama border, listen for a monotonous series of whistles from the canopy and check any shrike-vireo for the absence of a yellow supercilium.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Widespread in Central America, but dependent on continuous forest.
Scientific name
Vireolanius pulchellus | Sclater & Salvin, 1859
Sclater & Salvin described the species in 1859 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Vireolanius was introduced in 1850 by Bonaparte. The genus name combines the genus names Vireo (Latin vireo, 'green bird') and Lanius (Latin lanius, 'butcher', for shrikes): a vireo resembling a shrike. The species name is Latin pulchellus, diminutive of pulcher, 'pretty'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Guatemala.