Plate 150 – Red-eyed Vireo

Thomas Mayo Brewer (1814-1880) lived and worked in Boston. Brewer was especially fascinated by bird eggs. After meeting John James Audubon, Brewer and Audubon maintained a regular correspondence. On one occasion Brewer wrote to Audubon about spotting the nest of a Red-eyed vireo. The nest was about 30 feet up and towards the end of a branch of an oak tree. Brewer obtained a rope, threw one end over the branch, and then held both ends of the rope to pull the end of the branch down, thereby turning the nest upside down. Brewer then tied the rope off to secure the branch in place. The vireo dealt with the rearrangement by continuing to build on top of the underside of the nest. Two weeks later, Brewer detected in the nest two eggs of the Brown-headed Cowbird being incubated. The vireo then laid an egg of her own. Brewer then removed the vireo egg to see whether the parent vireo would finally abandon the nest. The vireo instead hatched and raised “her adopted younglings with unexampled fidelity.” Even with the burden of incubating and rearing Brown-headed cowbirds, the Red-eyed vireo remains common high up in the treetops of eastern North America. Audubon wrote, “So abundant is this bird, and so prodigal of its song, that any one paying the least attention is sure to hear it either from the trees which embellish the streets of the villages and cities, or the gardens and woods.”