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Green Shrike-Vireo | Vireolanius pulchellus
Groene klauwiervireo | Vireón esmeralda
The Green Shrike-Vireo is a bright green, heavy-billed vireo of the canopy of humid lowland forest. Its colour blends into the foliage, but its monotonous song can be heard all day. In the guide area it lives from south-eastern Mexico to Panama.
Voice
The song is a monotonously repeated, clear whistled phrase of usually three identical notes, often given for long periods from the canopy.
Recording: Manuel Grosselet - Edgar del Valle — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
13–14 cm. Upperparts bright grass-green; head with blue on the crown and/or nape, the extent varying between subspecies. Throat yellow, rest of the underparts yellowish green. Bill heavy, with a hooked tip. No wing bars.
Confusion species
Yellow-browed Shrike-Vireo Vireolanius eximius (eastern Panama only) has a blue crown and a distinct yellow supercilium. Rufous-browed Peppershrike Cyclarhis gujanensis is larger, with a grey head and a rufous brow.
Habitat
Canopy and upper levels of humid lowland and foothill forest, also forest edges, mature secondary forest and trees in shade coffee. Forages slowly among the leaves for insects, sometimes with mixed flocks.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
From south-eastern Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica to Panama. Outside the guide area in north-western Colombia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Scan high in the canopy for the singer with binoculars; it moves little and despite its bright colour is inconspicuous.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Fairly common in continuous forest, but seldom noticed because it lives in the canopy.
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. Vireolanius combines Vireo with Lanius, the shrike genus, after the stout, hook-tipped, shrike-like bill. pulchellus is Latin for 'beautiful little', a diminutive of pulcher 'beautiful', after the handsome green, yellow and blue plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Guatemala.