FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Mystery bird, last post

[Bill Pulliam <bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

After adding the vocalizations to the mix, the opinions have tended  
towards "Could it have been a juvenile White-eyed Vireo" and "are you  
sure it wasn't a juvenile WEVE," etc.  This is the question I have  
been asking myself all along, and I did eventually settle on WEVE as  
the most likely ID.  There are multiple things that are "wrong" about  
it (no noticeable yellow in the face pattern, the impression of long  
but not thick bill, etc.), but the little song-ette pushes it over  
the edge.  SO it seems to be the worlds drabbest, most plain and  
poorly marked juvenile White-eyed Vireo, far drabber than the usual  
autumn "Brown-eyed Vireo."

The thing I actually find most interesting about this bird is not its  
individual ID but its implications.  The characters described are on  
paper a pretty good match for Bell's Vireo.  But that little song  
with the slow squeaky warble was definitely more suggestive  of a  
White-eyed than a Bell's.  Plus, juvenile WEVEs are thick on the land  
this time of year, and Bell's would be a high-level rarity.  I've  
always thought that an out-of-range, non-singing Bell's Vireo in  
autumn is essentially impossible to identify with confidence (if it's  
not in-the-hand), and his bird has settled the matter for me.

Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
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