The black-capped vireo (''Vireo atricapilla'') is a small

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

native to the United States and Mexico. It was listed as an endangered species in the United States in 1987. Successful conservation efforts on the U.S. Army's

Fort Hood Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, Texas. Named after Confederate General John Bell Hood, it is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about from each, within the U.S. state of Texas. The post is the headquarter ...

and Fort Sill led to delisting the black-capped vireo in 2018. The IUCN lists the species as vulnerable.

Description

The black-capped vireo is a

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5000 ...

about 12 cm (4.5 inches ) in length. Sexually mature males are olive green above and white below with faint yellow flanks. The crown and upper half of the head is black with a partial white eye ring and lores. The iris is brownish-red and the bill is black. Females are duller in color than males and have a slate-gray crown and underparts washed with greenish yellow. First-year males often have more extensive gray in the cap, similar to adult females.

Nesting

The male and female in a pair assist in nest construction and incubation. Typically, the female lays three or four eggs. The incubation period is 14 to 17 days, and the nestling period is 10 to 12 days. The female broods over the young, while the male supplies most of the food during the nestling phase. Breeding pairs are capable of producing more than one clutch per breeding season. The male cares for some or all of the fledglings, while the female nests again, sometimes with another male. These birds are insectivorous, with

beetle Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

s and caterpillars making up a large part of their diet. Black-capped vireos nest in "shinneries", brushy areas with scattered trees. Shinneries primarily consist of shin oak or

sumac Sumac ( or ), also spelled sumach, is any of about 35 species of flowering plants in the genus ''Rhus'' and related genera in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae). Sumacs grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, including Eas ...

. Appropriate height and density are important factors for this species' breeding success. Foliage that extends to ground level is the most important requirement for nesting. Most nests are between 15 and 50 in (35–125 cm) above ground level, and are screened from view by foliage. Territories are sometimes located on steep slopes, where trees are often clumped and intermediate in height. On level terrain, the preferred black-capped vireo habitat is a mixture of shrubs and smaller trees that average from 8-10 ft high (2.5-3.5 m). Black-capped vireos stop using sites where many trees are nearing full size.

Distribution

The historic breeding distribution of the black-capped vireo extended south from south-central

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

through central Oklahoma and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

to central Coahuila,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. At present, the range extends from Oklahoma south through the

Edwards Plateau The Edwards Plateau is a geographic region at the crossroads of Central Texas, Central, South Texas, South, and West Texas. It is bounded by the Balcones Fault to the south and east, the Llano Uplift and the Llano Estacado to the north, and the ...

and Big Bend National Park, Texas, to at least the Sierra Madera in central Coahuila, Mexico. In Oklahoma, the black-capped vireo is found only in Blaine, Cleveland, Cotton and Comanche Counties. The winter range of this

vireo The vireos make up a family, Vireonidae, of small to medium-sized passerine birds found in the New World (Canada to Argentina, including Bermuda and the West Indies) and Southeast Asia. "Vireo" is a Latin word referring to a green migrato ...

is not well known. It is thought to winter along the west coast of Mexico from southern Sonora to

Guerrero Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...

Conservation

The black-capped vireo is threatened by

brown-headed cowbird The brown-headed cowbird (''Molothrus ater'') is a small, obligate brood parasitic icterid native to temperate and subtropical North America. It is a permanent resident in the southern parts of its range; northern birds migrate to the southern ...

(''Molothrus ater'')

brood parasitism Brood parasites are animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its ow ...

, human disturbance, and loss of habitat to urbanization, fire exclusion, grazing, and brush control. With population sizes now well into the tens of thousands, the species continues to be managed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Oklahoma Department of Conservation. Conservation efforts by the U.S. Army are continuing to enhance the conservation status of the black-capped vireo.

References

External links

*U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Black-capped Vireo (''Vireo atricapilla'')
Visual Resources for Ornithology, Drexel University * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20111003101751/http://birdfilms.com/birds/passerines/black_capped_vireo.html Black-capped Vireo video with songbr>BirdLife Species Factsheet.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q367520

black-capped vireo The black-capped vireo (''Vireo atricapilla'') is a small bird native to the United States and Mexico. It was listed as an endangered species in the United States in 1987. Successful conservation efforts on the U.S. Army's Fort Hood and Fort ...

Native birds of the Plains-Midwest (United States) Birds of the Rio Grande valleys Birds of Mexico Endemic birds of Southwestern North America