Hi Tweets,

Richard Rowlett writes:

>The Hutton's Vireo superficially resembles a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, except is
>slightly more robust, with a heavier 'vireo' bill, distinct and diagnostic
>broad pale lores and broken eye-ring, and much more sluggish habits. The
>habitat here consisted of primarily Douglas Fir and cedar with a sprinkling of
>deciduous trees (Red Alder and Broadleaf Maple?).

There's an interesting seasonal aspect to ID'ing Hutton's Vireo Vireo
huttoni. In winter, they join mixed-species forage flocks and in that
context resemble Ruby-crowned Kinglet Regulus calendula. At this time of the
year these flocks tend to stay fairly high in mature forest of the type
described above. In summer, though, they nest lower down in shrubbier
habitat and an observer will more often see them sitting near eye-level,
resembling nothing so much as an odd-loking greyish Pacific-slope (Western)
Flycatcher Empidonax difficilis. In ID'ing this species, one often needs to
take seasonal and habitat context into account.

>Are they at all
>migratory in the PacNW

That's something I was beginning to wonder about until a few years ago,
Richard. There was just a hint in the reporting that suggested a small
southbound movement. It's such an unobtrusive species that the
late-summer/early fall appearance of a Hutton's Vireo or two in a place from
which they were usually absent may simply be nearby post-breeding birds
moving into a more open area where they were more observable. One of those
little questions with no answer.

>and any less common around these parts than in the
>Spring/Summer, as if to suggest from my meager experience that they are even
>any more common?

Well, they are locally nesting birds, but tend to be pretty quiet unless
you're quite close to the nest, in which case you'll hear buzz/notes
somewhat similar to the alert/scold-call of the Bewick's Wren Thyromanes
bewickii; thin, almost-supersonic squeaks such as uttered in agitation and
conflict by Warbling Vireo Vireo gilvus; and a few quiet harsh 'cheks'.

(snip)
>it's distinctive call is still
>subtle enough that unless I'm really paying attention, I can miss it
>altogether. I am seldom around here when the Hutton's Vireo is most likely
>vocal
(snip)

Here in Vancouver BC I've heard them singing their loud, *incessant* (1/sec,
often for five or ten minutes at a time) 'tzur-RREEEP! song on sunny days,
usually around midday from late January and February, any weather from March
to May. Some good places locally are the powerline right-of-ways in the
University Endowment Lands (UEL) on Point Grey on Vancouver's west side (not
the West End--that's part of the downtown core) near the University of
British Columbia, an area covered mostly by the tree-mix Richard describes
above for the Sammamish Plateau. They used to be fairly easily found in the
forest around the NE corner of Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park but they've been
gone from there for some time, creeping away as mysteriously as they lived,
perhaps a casualty of Vancouver Park Board's brush-clearing to remove mature
red alder Alnus rubra (where they'd nest) or forest-opening (a euphemism for
cutting down big western redcedars Thuja plicata in the park).

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)