Red-eyed Vireo

Mnemonic discription of songs:

scream myaah when fighting
where are you? and here I am

What is known about red-eyed vireo song?

Repertoire:

  • Large repertoire of phrases averaging about 47 used alone or in many combinations to form songs (Lemmon 1971, Borror 1981)
  • Mean repertoire 49.4 (Borror 1981)
  • Sings continuously
  • Singing ends in August (Lawrence 1953a)

Neighbors

  • No dialects (Borror 1981)
  • No sharing of songs or phrases (Borror 1981)

Females

Don’t sing

How and when is song acquired?

  • Little known on the development of song but suggests that some learning occurs (Cimprich et al. 2020)
  • As primary song is developed, some syllables and syllable combinations are kept and others are discarded (Borror 1981)

How can we facilitate song learning?

  • Seems to fit closest to action-based learning model where numerous syllables are learned and some are used in songs and some are dropped.
  • Possibly syllables are learned
  • Expose young to singing adults
  • It is not known if playing recorded song facilitates learning

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References:

Barlow, J. C. and J. C. Rice. (1977). Aspects of the comparative behavior of Red-eyed and Philadelphia vireos. Canadian Journal of Zoology 55:528-541.

Borror, D. J. (1981). The songs and singing behavior of the Red-eyed Vireo. Condor 83:217-228.

Cimprich, D. A., F. R. Moore, and M. P. Guilfoyle (2020). Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (P. G. Rodewald, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.reevir1.01

Godard, R. (1993a). Red-eyed Vireos have difficulty recognizing individual neighbors’ songs. Auk 110:857-862.

Lawrence, L. K. (1953a). Nesting life and behaviour of the Red-eyed Vireo. Canadian Field-Naturalist 67:47-77.

Lemon, R. E. (1971). Analysis of song of Red-eyed Vireos. Canadian Journal of Zoology 49:847-854.

Rice, J. C. (1978b). Behavioral interactions of two interspecifically territorial vireos. I: Song discrimination and natural interactions. Animal Behaviour 26:527-549.