Summary

  • Natural history: The Philadelphia Vireo is Vermont’s most obscure breeding songbird, both genuinely rare and easily overlooked because its song is a near-copy of the much more numerous Red-eyed Vireo’s. As the vireo species that breeds farthest north in North America, it specializes in young, regenerating forest of aspen, birch, and alder that springs up after logging or fire, a habitat that tends to be temporary and patchy rather than a permanent fixture on the landscape. Vermont’s population appears to have collapsed since the First Atlas, a trend that runs opposite to increases reported in New York and Ontario over the same period, which researchers here link to Vermont’s forests maturing past the brushy, early-successional stage this vireo depends on.
  • Status in VT: Decreased by 89% (19 to 2 blocks). Greatest decreases in Northern Vermont Piedmont, Southern Vermont Piedmont, and Southern Green Mountains.
  • Data from other research: No additional data for VT.
  • Conservation status: State rank S1B
  • Other atlases: NY, ON: pronounced increases
  • VT’s role in North American range: VT is on the southern edge of the range.
  • Causes of change since first Atlas: Unclear, given increases in nearby states and in BBS data; early- to mid-successional species negatively affected by forest maturation (?).
  • Management/Monitoring recommendations:Targeted surveys to determine true population status.

First Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (1976-1981)

Species Account

Second Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas (2003 – 2007)

Species Account

Philadelphia Vireo Map 1Philadelphia Vireo Table 1Philadelphia Vireo Table 2

Change in Distribution

mapkeyPhiladelphia Vireo Map 2Philadelphia Vireo Table 3

Links

Vermont eBird

Encyclopedia of Life

All About Birds