Viréo à calotte noire

Identification

The black-capped vireo is a songbird about 12 cm (4.5 inches ) in length. Sexually mature males are olive green above and white below with faint yellow flanks. The crown and upper half of the head is black with a partial white eye ring and lores. The iris is brownish-red and the bill is black. Females are duller in color than males and have a slate-gray crown and underparts washed with greenish yellow. First-year males often have more extensive gray in the cap, similar to adult females.

Taxonomie

Nom scientifique

Vireo atricapilla

Autorité

Woodhouse, 1852

Ordre

Passériformes

Famille

Viréonidés

Genre

Vireo

Répartition et habitat

The historic breeding distribution of the black-capped vireo extended south from south-central Kansas through central Oklahoma and Texas to central Coahuila, Mexico. At present, the range extends from Oklahoma south through the Edwards Plateau and Big Bend National Park, Texas, to at least the Sierra Madera in central Coahuila, and south to southwestern Tamaulipas. In Oklahoma, the black-capped vireo is found only in Blaine, Cleveland, Cotton and Comanche Counties. It winters along the west coast of Mexico from southern Sonora to Guerrero.

Migration

Complete migrants

Conservation

The black-capped vireo is threatened by brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) brood parasitism, human disturbance, loss of habitat to urbanization, fire exclusion, livestock grazing, and brush control. The species was listed as an Endangered Species on 6 October 1987, "due to such factors asurbanization, grazing, rangeimprovement, and succession."<p>With a declining total population size between 10,000 and 19,999, the species continues to be managed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Oklahoma Department of Conservation.<p>Conservation efforts on the U.S. Army's Fort Cavazos and Fort Sill helped contribute to its delisting from the endangered species list.

Tendance de la population

declining