Breeding Birds of North Dakota
Bell's vireo (Vireo bellii (Audubon))
Breeding Range. (Fig. 133). Rare and local along the Missouri River and some of its tributaries. Recorded as follows: near Fort Union in Williams County in 1843 (Baird et al. 1858, and Audubon 1870); a singing male about 1 mile northwest of Bismarck in Burleigh County on July 11, 1954, another singing male about 3 miles southwest of Riverdale in McLean County on June 20, 1961, and two singing males about 1/4 mile below Garrison Dam during June 11-July 10, 1968 (Hibbard and Kline 1971); a singing male about 5 miles south of Bismarck in Burleigh County on June 29, 1963, and a singing male along Brush Creek, a tributary of the Knife River, in Mercer County on June 4, 1966 (RES); one scolding adult collected along the Heart River in Stark County on August 22, 1967 (R. L. Kroodsma); and two territorial males recorded in late June, 1974, a few miles south of Bismarck (R. N. Randall).
Breeding Habitat. Apparently restricted to fairly dense thickets of small trees and shrubs that occur on moist or swampy sites.
Nesting. Two nest records were reported by Hibbard and Kline (1971). On July 11, 1954, a nest containing one dead young was found in a bottomland thicket near Bismarck. A severe thunderstorm had occurred during the previous day, possibly accounting for the dead young. This nest was situated in a red-osier dogwood, 3 feet above the ground. In 1968, a "last-years" nest was found in a bottomland thicket near Garrison Dam.
 |
 |
