Birds of the Upper Cumberland Region: Species Accounts

Blue-headed Vireo (Vireo solitarius)

Blue-headed Vireo [lateral view of adult]: Photograph Credit: Rickey Shive; Pulliam Hollow, Metcalfe County, Kentucky; 10 October 2019.

Abundance: Uncommon during spring, summer, and fall; Rare during winter; recorded in 23 Regional counties, 8 in Kentucky and 15 in Tennessee (Map of UCR Distribution); increasing breeder on Cumberland Plateau and in Cumberland Mountains, usually above 500 m (1700 ft), but may breed at lower elevations (i.e., as low as 400 m [1300 ft] in Icy Cove, Putnam County, Tennessee) on the escarpments of the plateau and on the lower slopes of the Cumberland Mountains (see also Regional Bird-Monitoring Plan).

Status: Summer Resident; increasing Visitor during winter (6 records) and consequently likely to achieve Permanent Resident status at some point in the future; photograph (see above)..

Regional High Count: 46 (17 April 2010; Frozen Head State Natural Area, Morgan County, Tennessee; Scott G. Somershoe); SBC/SBB High Count: 44 (7 May 2011; Cumberland County, Tennessee [SBC]; m. ob.).

Out-of-Season (Winter) Records: 

21 February 1998 (1) Meadow Creek area east of Monterey on Rt. 62, Putnam County, Tennessee (Richard W. Simmers, Jr.; Stedman 2006–2012).

10 January 2001 (1) Flat Rock Ridge Rd., northeast of Whitley City, McCreary County, Kentucky (Steven Thomas and W. Moore; Palmer-Ball 2003).

28 December 2003 (1) Edgar Evins State Park, DeKalb County, Tennessee (Stephen J. Stedman; Casteel 2004b), a CBC (count week) record.

27 December 2005 (1) Appalachian Center for Craft, DeKalb County, Tennessee (Stephen J. Stedman; Casteel 2006b), a CBC record.

21 December 2009 (1) near end of Pollard Cemetery Rd., White County, Tennessee (Scott G. Somershoe, Edmund K. LeGrand), a CBC record.

21 December 2013 (1) Appalachian Center for Craft, DeKalb County, Tennessee (Stephen J. Stedman, Trevor Foster, Todd Foster), a CBC record.

Regional Extreme Dates:

    Early Spring: 21 February 1998 (Putnam County, Tennessee; Richard W. Simmers, Jr.).

    Late Fall: 10 January 2001 (McCreary County, Kentucky; Steven Thomas and W. Moore).

    Note: The earliest arriving and latest departing of the Regional vireos, the Blue-head usually arrives by mid-March and departs by early to mid-November. Regional dates of earliest reported arrival and latest reported departure for 2002–2011 follow:

* But see also Out-of-Season (Winter) Records (above).

Breeding: Confirmed (Recent).

Habitat: Mixed forests of the Cumberland Plateau and Cumberland Mountains generally harbor the densest populations of Blue-heads, but this vireo is capable of sustaining moderately dense populations at sites with mainly or exclusively deciduous forest cover, as is the case at Frozen Head State Natural Area, Morgan County, Tennessee.

YardWatch Results 2003 and 2004: Registered on 3 (of 125) monthly check-lists during 2003 and on 5 (of 206) check-lists during 2004, indicating that this vireo was Very Uncommon during both years in the habitats where YardWatch data were collected, but few checklists were submitted from sites on the Cumberland Plateau during those years.

Foray Results: A summary of data from UCR Forays follows (to view a map displaying foray data for a county or a sub-Region for this species, click on the name of an underlined county or state below):

* Because some foray blocks fall into two or three counties, the total of blocks in the Kentucky or Tennessee portions of the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the counties of each portion of the Region; similarly, because some blocks fall into both states, the total of blocks for the Region is less than the sum of the blocks in the two states.

Remarks: A few individuals probably overwinter, especially during winters when an abundant soft mast crop is available, but no certain evidence to that effect is currently available.

    Data supporting this species' Regional (and continental) population increase derive from several sources. Probably the best Regional source involves point counts conducted in the Obed Wild and Scenic River, mainly Morgan County, Tennessee (Point Counts in OWSR), where numbers of Blue-heads approximately doubled from 1998 to 2006, an increase more dramatic even than the increase in the Blue-head's continental population as measured by Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data (Pardieck and Sauer 2000).  Regional BBS data reflect at best a quite small increase in this species' population during the past decade or so (Regional BBS data).  Data from Regional Spring Bird Counts reveal recent increased numbers of this vireo (Regional SBC data), but the increase is partly a function of increased numbers of counts being conducted and partly a function of an increase in numbers of observers counting (as in the case of Cumberland County, Tennessee); however, the somewhat irregular increase in Putnam County, Tennessee, is perhaps reflective of an actual increase in the number of Blue-heads being counted in that county.

    The Blue-head's Regional range expansion is probably altitudinal at least in part, with breeding populations on the plateau and on the higher slopes of the Cumberland Mountains expanding downslope to accommodate the species' population increase.

Check-lists of Birds for the Counties of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of each county of the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed by clicking on the links below. For each county, there are two check-lists: one list that shows the species that have been observed and where possible documented in the county within the larger list for the entire Region; and one list that includes only the species observed in the county with annotations for the date and observers for at least one sighting (the ultimate goal of the latter list will be to include annotations for the very first known Regional observation of each species in that county; this goal is probably one that will take many years to complete, if completion is even a possibility). To see if the species discussed in this species account has been observed in a county, click below or click on the link for the Map of UCR Distribution near the top of the page.

Check-lists of Birds for Some Public Access Birding Sites of the UCR

Check-lists of the birds of some public access birding sites within the Upper Cumberland Region may be viewed via the links below. To see if the species dealt with in this species account has been observed within any of these sites, click on the appropriate link below. See the pages for each county within the Gazetteer for links to additional smaller public access birding sites with check-lists in progress.

Literature Cited