Vireo del Chocó vs Frutero Escamado

Vireo masteri compared with Ampelioides tschudii

Key Differences

• Vireo del Chocó is Endangered while Frutero Escamado is Least Concern.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Vireo del Chocó	Frutero Escamado
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum same	Chordata (cordados)	Chordata (cordados)
Class same	Aves (Birds)	Aves (Birds)
Order same	Passeriformes (paseriformes)	Passeriformes (paseriformes)
Family	Vireonidae	Cotingidae
Genus	Vireo	Ampelioides
Species	Vireo masteri	Ampelioides tschudii

Evolutionary Relationship

Vireo del Chocó and Frutero Escamado share a common ancestor at the Order level: Passeriformes. (paseriformes)

Conservation Status

Vireo del Chocó

EN — Endangered

Frutero Escamado

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Vireo del Chocó	Frutero Escamado
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Vireo del Chocó

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, flooded grasslands and savannas, and montane grasslands and shrublands, among 4 distinct biome types within the Neotropic biogeographic realm.

Range

Distributed across Colombia, Ecuador, and Norway. Currently classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Frutero Escamado

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Distributed across Colombia, Ecuador, Norway, and Venezuela.

Vireo del Chocó

The Choco Vireo (Vireo masteri) is a small, poorly known passerine in the family Vireonidae, with a highly restricted range in the western Andes foothills on the Pacific slope of Colombia and possibly adjacent Ecuador. It was described scientifically only in 1997, reflecting the challenges of survey work in the remote, wet, and botanically complex terrain of the Colombian Chocó. The Choco Vireo is a small greenish-yellow vireo with a distinctive facial pattern including a pale supercilium and dark eye-stripe. Like other vireos, it forages methodically through mid-canopy and sub-canopy foliage, gleaning caterpillars, beetles, and other invertebrates from leaves. Its song is a series of high, slurred phrases repeated with characteristic vireonid persistence. The species appears restricted to humid montane and foothill forest at elevations roughly between 800 and 1,800 metres — a zone severely impacted by the expansion of coca cultivation, illegal logging, and cattle ranching in the Colombian Pacific region. The IUCN classifies the Choco Vireo as Endangered given its extremely small and severely fragmented range and continued loss of suitable forest habitat. Very little is known about its population size, ecology, or breeding biology, making targeted survey and monitoring urgently needed.

Frutero Escamado

El frutero escamado (Ampelioides tschudii) esta clasificado como Preocupacion Menor (LC) en la Lista Roja de la UICN. Es una especie ampliamente distribuida y abundante en su area de distribucion, con poblaciones estables y sin problemas de conservacion inmediatos.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 3 countries:

🇨🇴 Colombia 🇪🇨 Ecuador 🇳🇴 Norway