Veery

Description

Adults have light brown upperparts, white underparts, and a light tawny breast with faint brownish spots. The legs are pink and the eye ring is poorly defined. Eastern birds appear more cinnamon above, while western birds are more olive-brown. The veery shows the characteristic under-wing stripe of Catharus thrushes.

Its song is a breezy, downward-spiraling, flute-like series often given from a low concealed perch. The most common call is a harsh, descending vee-er; other calls include a chuckle, a sharp low wuck, and a slow wee-u. Veeries decrease singing rate and duration when exposed to barred owl playback.

Ecology and behavior

The veery breeds in humid deciduous forest across southern Canada and the northern United States, favoring dense growth and understory near water. It migrates to eastern South America, with winter range possibly including the entire Amazon basin, Mérida state in Venezuela, the headwaters of the Orinoco River, and São Paulo state, Brazil. Stopover regions during migration from Delaware include the Gulf of Mexico coast, the coasts of the Carolinas, Cuba, Jamaica, Colombia, and Venezuela.

It forages on the forest floor by flipping leaves to uncover insects and may catch insects in flight. Diet consists mainly of insects during breeding, shifting to fruit and berries in late summer and fall. The cup nest is built on the ground or near the base of a shrub, with three structural layers: outer leaves and branches, woven inner material, and a lining of flexible bark, roots, and seeds. Nests incorporate parts of 27 plant species, including invasive plants, with similar reproductive success.

Clutch size is three to five greenish-blue eggs, sometimes with brown spots. The female incubates for 10 to 14 days; both parents feed nestlings, which leave the nest 10 to 12 days after hatching.

The veery has been displaced in some areas by the wood thrush, though a case of interspecific parental care by a wood thrush has been documented. Veeries are occasional hosts for brown-headed cowbird eggs. Males may feed nestlings at more than one nest, and multiple males may feed at a single nest.

Threats

Veery populations have declined across most of their range since the mid-1960s, facing threats from cowbird nest parasitism, climate change, and Amazonian forest loss. Woodland habitat loss, along with predators like squirrels, chipmunks, and raptors, also pose risks.