The Yellow-throated Vireo is the most colorful of Michigan's vireos, with a brilliant lemon-yellow throat and breast, matching yellow "spectacles" around the eyes, an olive head and back, a contrasting gray rump, and two bold white wing bars. Chunkier and more sluggish than a warbler, it forages deliberately through the canopy of mature deciduous woods, and its song — a series of slurred, burry, low-pitched phrases with a hoarse quality, often rendered "three-eight... see-you"— is delivered with long pauses, sweeter but rougher than the Red-eyed Vireo's endless chatter.
It favors tall, open deciduous woodland and big shade trees, often near water or along woodland edges, and it builds a neat cup nest decorated on the outside with lichen and bound with spider silk, hung in the fork of a branch. Yellow-throated Vireos breed across southern and central Michigan, arriving in May and departing by early fall for Central America. Their bright plumage and unhurried movements make them one of the more rewarding vireos to find and watch.
Gleans caterpillars and other insects from the leaves and twigs of the canopy, moving slowly and methodically, and adds berries and small fruit in late summer and fall. It forages more deliberately than warblers, working through the foliage of tall deciduous trees.
Look for a stocky vireo with a bright yellow throat and breast, yellow "spectacles," an olive head, a gray rump, and two white wing bars. The vivid yellow throat with spectacles is distinctive among Michigan vireos.
Both are yellow-throated and have wing bars, but the vireo is chunkier with a thicker, slightly hooked bill, bold yellow spectacles, and slower, more deliberate movements. The Pine Warbler is slimmer, with a thinner bill and quicker warbler-like foraging.
In mature, open deciduous woodlands and among tall shade trees, often near water or along wooded edges. It breeds across southern and central Michigan in the warmer months.
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