Swarth says that these birds of the dry chaparral are entirely outside the range of other Vireos. They forage thru scrub oak and manzanita thickets — occasionally into sagebrush where they may be followed for twenty minutes because of their loud full-toned song, without a glimpse of the birds above chaparral tops.
Southern California, southern Nevada, the Grand Canyon of Colorado and southeastern Colorado, south to Lower California.
A tree rarely more than 40 feet high, distributed in moist soil from the valley of the Klamath River southward thru western California to the mountains of southern Arizona.