The Red-eyed Vireo may be the most persistent singer in Michigan's summer forests. It delivers short, robin-like phrases — "here I am, where are you, up here" — over and over, all day long, sometimes thousands of times between dawn and dusk. Olive-green above and clean white below, it wears a neat gray cap bordered by a white eyebrow and a dark line through the eye; the ruby-red eye that gives it its name is visible only at close range on adults.
It is one of the most abundant breeding songbirds in eastern deciduous forests, and Michigan's leafy woodlands hold them in good numbers from mid-May into September. Despite that abundance it stays high in the foliage and is often overlooked, its ceaseless singing the main clue to its presence. Come fall, it fattens on fruit before a long migration to the Amazon basin.
Feeds heavily on caterpillars and other insects gleaned methodically from the leaves of the canopy in summer, an important controller of leaf-eating larvae. In late summer and fall it shifts toward fruit and berries to build fat reserves for its long migration to South America.
Very likely a Red-eyed Vireo. It repeats short, question-and-answer phrases from the canopy throughout the day, even in midsummer heat, and is one of the most tireless singers in North America.
Only at close range, and only on adults — young birds have dark eyes. Most of the time the bird stays high in the foliage, so the gray cap, white eyebrow, and dark eye-line are more useful field marks.
In the leafy canopy of deciduous and mixed forests. It forages deliberately through the upper foliage, so scanning toward a persistent singer overhead is the best approach.
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