The Red-Eyed Vireo as a Bird of Oregon
The Red-eyed Vireo as a Bird of Oregon
The first reference to the capture of the Red-eyed Vireo (Vlireosylva olivacea) in the literature on Oregon birds that I can find was in Shelton's Distributional List of the Land Birds of West Central Oregon, published by the University of Oregon (University of Oregon Bulletin, New Series, Jan., 1917, vol. XIV, no. 4, p. 37), in which an adult male was reported taken on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River near Oakridge on the west slope of the Cascade Mountains. The species was next brought to my attention during the summer of 1923, when Mr. William Sherwood, of Salem, Oregon, collected a number of them on the Imnaha River near Imnaha Post Office in Wallowa County near the northeast corner of the state. One of these specimens, an adult male, was taken on June 14, 1923.
On June 18, 1924, at Union, Union County, Oregon, my attention was drawn to a vireo song which, upon investigation, proved to be from a Red-eyed Vireo in a near-by cottonwood tree. This bird was seen at a distance of ten or twelve feet and positively identified. On July 6, 1924, in the company of I. N. Gabrielson, of Portland, I found a nest of this species in a wild crabapple tree on the banks of the Columbia River about twelve miles east of Portland. The nest was typical of the species and contained three fresh eggs. On this day, Gabrielson and I saw no less than seven Red-eyed Vireos and heard several more in about two hundred acres of well wooded river-bottom land. Two adult males were collected. On July 13, 1924, Mr. Gabrielson again visited this locality and took an additional adult male and heard several more.
In view of the above, it appears that the Red-eyed Vireo has recently become a fairly common breeding bird of Oregon. The species probably invaded the state from the north, as it has long been a common breeding species in the eastern part of the state of Washington.
Stanley G. Jewett
Portland, Oregon, July l4, 1924
