Bell's Vireo

This is one of my favorite times of year. Days are hot, but mornings and evenings are temperate. Migration is active but not so flashy that everyone is out. It's not uncommon to have a birding hotspot all to myself when I head out, and there are some pretty nice birds drifting through almost unseen.

This is the time of year to get out and look for regular but low-frequency migrants like Mourning Warbler and Olive-sided Flycatcher, and for spectacular longshots like Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher. It's also the time to try to document migrants that are probably a little more common than we realize, like Bell's Vireo.

Bell's Vireos are hard to find even when you know they're around, and chances are that a few pass through when we're not around, these hot dry days of migration when fall birding is still just a gleam in many birders' eyes. Bell's are also drab, so a quick look at one of them isn't the slam dunk that a look at a male Mourning Warbler might be.

Bell's Vireos are Review List birds in Louisiana, birds for which reports should be submitted to the Louisiana Bird Records Committee. In recent years reports of Bell's Vireo have increased and they may eventually be downgraded if they turn out to be more common than supposed. Sightings should be well-documented to eliminate the possibility of mistaken identity with young White-eyed Vireos (which don't have white eyes yet). Pictures of Bell's Vireos can be hard to get, but even a bad picture will often clinch the ID. The photo above, while not great, should be sufficient to document a recent sighting of this nondescript little songbird. I took the picture at the Baton Rouge Audubon Sanctuary at Peveto Woods down in Cameron Parish on August 30, 2009.