Green Shrike-Vireo

The green shrike-vireo is 12 to 15 cm (4.7 to 5.9 in) long and weighs 22 to 30 g (0.78 to 1.1 oz). It is a bulky bird and a large member of its family. The sexes have the same plumage. They have a cerulean blue crown and nape with some green in the center of the crown. The sides of their head and their upperparts are bright green. Their chin and throat are yellow and the rest of their underparts mostly light yellowish green. The green is deeper on the flanks and the undertail coverts are greenish yellow. They have a brown iris, a black maxilla, a light gray with a darker base mandible, and gray legs and feet. Juveniles are mostly olive-green above and dull yellowish below. They have a bold yellow supercilium and two yellow wing bars. Subspecies V. p. ramosi has a mostly to entirely blue head and nape. Its breast, sides, and flanks are a clearer, less greenish, yellow than the nominate's. V. p. verticalis has a mostly green head with blue only on the forehead and hindneck. V. p. viridiceps has a green head with blue only on the hindneck.

The subspecies of the green shrike-vireo are found thus:

V. p. ramosi: southeastern Mexico from Veracruz east to Quintana Roo and south to Oaxaca V. p. pulchellus: Gulf/Caribbean slope from Campeche and Quintana Roo in southeastern Mexico south through Belize, eastern Guatemala and eastern Honduras into northern Nicaragua; intermittently on Pacific slope of Chiapas, western Guatemala, and northern El Salvador V. p. verticalis: Caribbean slopes of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and western Panama to eastern Veraguas Province V. p. viridiceps: Pacific slope from the southern Gulf of Nicoya in Costa Rica into western Panama; Caribbean slope of central Panama to Panamá Province The green shrike-vireo inhabits the interior and edges of humid evergreen and semi-deciduous forest in the tropical and lower subtropical zones. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 1,800 m (5,900 ft) in Mexico and northern Central America and to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in Costa Rica.

The green shrike-vireo feeds mostly on large arthropods including caterpillars and also includes fruit and seeds in its diet. It usually forages singly or in pairs and often joins mixed-species feeding flocks. It forages mostly in the forest canopy or just below it but will feed lower at the forest edge.