Veery
The Veery's name is onomatopoeic. Its call note, heard on the breeding grounds as well as during nocturnal migration, is a distinctive descending "veer."

Veerys arrive on their breeding grounds in early May after wintering in northern South America and migrating across the Gulf of Mexico. Although they may vocalize occasionally during migration, it is usually a week or more after they reach the breeding range before they begin to sing regularly. Males have favorite song perches from which they sing their ethereal flutelike song. The song consists of four or five phrases, each sung slightly lower than the previous one: "da-veer-ur, vee-ur, vee-ur, vee-ur, veer." When the male attracts a prospective mate, he first treats her as an intruder, giving chase. He gradually comes to accept her as the pair bond forms, with both sexes singing back and forth for several days at dawn and dusk.

The female constructs the nest on or near the ground, often at the base of a small sapling or shrub, or on a hummock of grass or moss. First she builds a platform of moist dead leaves. She makes the nest cup using twigs, grapevine bark, weed stems, and decayed leaves. Then she lines the nest with decayed leaves, rootlets and fibers. Nests sometimes fall apart when the leaves dry out. The female does most of the incubation and brooding, but both sexes feed the young, beginning with small caterpillars and grubs. The young leave the nest at about eleven days.

Veerys commonly forage on the ground or less than 10 feet up in small trees and shrubs. Between half and three-quarters of their food is found on the ground. When foraging, Veerys alternate stationary periods with long hops, often rising up with a beat of the wings. They search for beetles, ants, sow bugs, snails, earthworms and other invertebrate food by turning over leaves with their bills. Veerys also eat strawberries, blackberries, cherries, grapes, dogwood berries and other fruits.

Early successional habitats such as damp deciduous woods, streamside thickets, and swamps are home to the Veery across southern Canada and northern United States. Veerys are tolerant of disturbed woodlands as long as there is a dense understory. Veerys usually use wetter habitats at earlier successional stages than those used by Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina). In the absence of other members of the Catharus genus-Hermit (C. guttatus) Gray-cheeked (C. minimus), Bicknell's (C. bicknelli), or Swainson's Thrushes (C. ustulatus)-Veerys will also use conifers and mixed woodlands. However, when one or more of the other species are present, Veerys use a narrower range of habitats. Veerys are vulnerable to forest fragmentation and cowbird parasitism.
Veery Range Map

Description: Adult Veerys are generally reddish brown above with gray flanks and white underparts, weakly spotted with dusky brown at the upper breast and lower throat. The triangular spots are indistinct and fade into the white lower breast and belly. The face is grayish, separated from the white throat by a weak brownish stripe. The eye is partially surrounded by an indistinct pale eye ring. Legs and feet are pink; the bill is brown and the eye dark brown. Sexes are alike.

Veerys are the least spotted of the brown-backed North American thrushes. The similarly faintly spotted Gray-cheeked, Bicknell's and Swainson's Thrushes have larger and better-defined spotting at the lower throat and upper breast. Hermit Thrushes have still more and darker spotting, while Wood Thrushes have underparts marked overall with large distinct spots. Veerys are warmer overall than the other Catharus thrushes, with grayish faces mottled with brown and indistinct grayish eye rings. Other Catharus thrushes have cold gray faces with more distinct eye rings. Wood Thrushes are larger with rufous on the head and nape, and strongly streaked faces.


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