Birdfinding.info ⇒ Easy to find in its minuscule range. This species is naturally confined to an isolated land mass of less than 9 square miles, and it can be found wherever suitable habitat exists within that limited area.
Providencia Vireo
Vireo approximans
Endemic to Isla Providencia and the adjacent Isla Santa Catalina (Colombian territories about 150 miles east of northern Nicaragua), where it is common in mangroves, other woodlands, and scrub.
Identification
An olive vireo with two whitish wingbars and yellow loral bars that merge into partial eyerings. The rest of its plumage is somewhat variable from salmon-buff to yellow-olive, but individuals are typically uniform in color. Normally the only wing-barred vireo in its range, so identification is straightforward.
Has been considered a subspecies of both Thick-billed and Mangrove Vireos, but more similar visually (and geographically closer) to Mangrove. Its facial pattern differs from Thick-billed’s in that it lacks a blackish loral line and its partial eyering is limited to a small crescent behind the eye.
Providencia Vireo, typical plumage. (Isla Santa Catalina, Colombia; November 1, 2017.) © Anthony Levesque
Providencia Vireo, an exceptionally pinkish, salmon-buff individual. (Isla Providencia, Colombia; November 30, 2017.) © Rafael Tosi
Providencia Vireo. (Isla Providencia, Colombia; November 30, 2017.) © Rafael Tosi
Voice. Calls include mellow trills: Also buzzy, chickadee-like scolding: And a rapid tu-WHIT! tu-WHIT! tu-WHIT! tu-WHIT! tu-WHIT! tu-WHIT!
Notes
Monotypic species. Has traditionally been considered a subspecies of either Thick-billed or Mangrove Vireo, but differences in vocalizations seem sufficient to regard it as an independent species.
References
Brewer, D. 2018. Mangrove Vireo (Vireo pallens). In Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D.A. Christie and E. de Juana, eds.). Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. https://www.hbw.com/node/61243. (Accessed November 15, 2018.)
eBird. 2018. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed November 15, 2018.)
Peiman, K.S. 2013. Thick-billed Vireo (Vireo crassirostris), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T.S. Schulenberg, ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.thbvir.01.
Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.