Alternate name: Solitary Vireo

Family: Vireonidae, Vireos view all from this family

Description 5-6" (13-15 cm). Gray crown, nape, face, and back; white throat and underparts; white wing-bars and flight feather edges; large white "spectacles"; sides of breast olive-gray, flanks sometimes with yellowish tinge.

Habitat Coniferous and mixed forests.

Nesting 3-5 white eggs, lightly spotted with brown, in a pendant cup of bark strips and down, placed in a forked twig of a small forest tree.

Range A breeding bird of the Great Basin and Rocky Mountains. Easternmost California east to the Black Hills of South Dakota and south to southern Arizona and southern New Mexico. A few overwinter in the Southwest.

Voice Song a rather slow series of burry phrases, slower and rougher than that of Cassin's Vireo. Call a husky chatter.

Discussion This species, the Blue-headed Vireo, and Cassin's Vireo were formerly considered a single species known as the Solitary Vireo. The Plumbeous Vireo is a common and widespread summer bird in much of the West. In migration and winter, when it occurs with its sibling, the Cassin's Vireo, care should be taken to differentiate the two species, which can look very much alike even under good viewing conditions.