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In On the Move, our regular column about migration, we present pairs of distribution maps from eBird that you can use to compare where interesting birds are at different times of year. We featured Warbling Vireo, pictured above, in our June 2017 issue.

Warbling Vireo

Well-known Warbling Vireo occurs across much of North America in summer. As the June map shows, it breeds from British Columbia and Alberta south and east through the Pacific Northwest and California, the Rockies, Midwest, Great Lakes, and Northeast. The bird occupies a wide range of deciduous forest habitats from sea level to nearly 3,000 meters in elevation. The species is separated into eastern and western forms, which differ only slightly visually, though the songs of the two groups are normally different enough to be identifiable. Warbling Vireo is a complete migrant, and by January, it has vacated its breeding range for wintering areas in western and central Mexico and south through Central America to Costa Rica. Seemingly well adapted to urban environments, birders should look for vireos and listen for their complex jumbled song in parks and gardens, along fencerows, and in streamside woods — habitats where they can be found as migrants or while breeding.

See e-Bird’s real-time distribution map for Warbling Vireo

eBird is the real-time online checklist operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon. “On the Move” is written by eBird’s Garrett MacDonald, Chris Wood, Marshall Iliff, and Brian Sullivan. Submit your bird sightings at ebird.org.

A version of this article appeared in “Birding Briefs” in the June 2017 issue of BirdWatching.

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