Mangrove Vireo song - Calakmul First three syllables of sound file depicted Click on spectrogram to download sound file

Song Description:

The Mangrove Vireo is a chatter singer, with a large and varied repertoire of vocalizations.  The song is a short series of nasal chwei-chwei-chwei notes.  Common calls are very numerous and include short repeated wheezes, a bouncy breeeee, and a series of lively notes that sound like a bouncing cartoon spring.

Song Measures:

The nasal song consists of five or six repeated syllables (Howell and Webb (1995) report a range of three to 12) given in rapid succession at a rate of approximately four per second.  Each of the identical syllables is a downslurred note with a frequency range of 1400 to 3800 Hz.  Howell and Webb (1995) report that the song is sometimes preceded by a different introductory syllable.  The intersong interval is 5.5 ± 1.95 (N=15 songs from one individual).

Singing Behaviour:

In the red mangrove swamps, where visually tracking birds was much easier than in the forest, I found singing vireos moving around rapidly from perch to perch a few meters off the ground, foraging as they sang.  Their vocalizations carry long distances, and I would often hear two or more birds in extended bouts of countersinging.

Habitat:

Mangrove Vireos were abundant in the mangroves and brushy field along the coast at Celestun, but were also heard singing from some deeper parts of the second growth forests at Calakmul.

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