Yellow-throated vireo was in our neighbor’s banyan around 9 a.m. this morning. I heard it singing a song I did not recognize as being a normal part of the neighborhood… “a broken series of burry two- and three-syllable phrases.”
So I found my bird camera that has been on a shelf getting dusty for much of the summer and headed out to stand in the driveway looking up. I was rewarded with a few pics of this bright bird wearing little yellow spectacles, a new species for me and my 60th Florida bird. (We moved here in December.)
A bird of open deciduous forests, the Yellow-throated Vireo is the most colorful member of its family in North America.
They are neotropical migrants and this little fellow is probably headed to deep south Florida, Mexico or Central America.
Here is the tree that plays host to resident and migrating birds through the year. It’s a bit of a mess for humans to deal with, dropping a variety of fruit and nut things on the driveway, but the shade is nice.
Check out the eclipse moons cast through its leaf shadows last Monday!..
Posted to Facebook Monday afternoon.
Also falling from the tree onto the driveway earlier this summer… a huge Cuban Knight Anole! It actually made a thump when it landed behind me after a dog walk. It stayed frozen in place for a few minutes, long enough to put the dog in the house and get my camera.
Looks like my little visitor is finding plenty to eat up in that messy tree.
Safe travels, vireo!