Willow warbler

“ Numbers on 13th, and number of males on 24th. On 13th, N.W. wind, strong, clear. Also, on 15th, a Willow Warbler—light haze, struck S.E. side, light W. wind; and a Wood Warbler on the 24th—a fine male. In September, a single Willow Warbler from N. Unst, light N.W., on 15th; and a few Gold Crests at XXVII. on 1st, and again on 17th and 19th—the latter amongst the rocks on the E. side—light S.W. A rush of Chiff-Chaffs on 17th October at XXVII., light E., haze and rain—and Willow Warbler; and then, on 18th and 19th, Gold Crests all night. ”

“ The Black-and-Yellow Warbler arrives in Massachusetts from the South about the 15th of May. During the next two or three weeks they are abundant everywhere in congenial localities. Willow thickets near streams, ponds, and other damp places, suit them best, but it is also not unusual to find many in the upland woods, especially where young pines or other evergreens grow thickly. Their food at this season is exclusively insects, the larger part consisting of the numerous species of Diptera. ”

“ They are small, very active, but feeble songsters, and, to be seen, must be sought for. In passing through the woods, most persons have a vague consciousness of slight chirping, semi-musical sounds in the trees overhead. In most cases these sounds proceed from the warblers. Throughout the Middle and Eastern States, half a dozen species or so may be found in almost every locality, as the redstart, the Maryland yellow-throat, the yellow warbler (not the common goldfinch, with black cap, and black wings and tail) , the hooded warbler, the black and white creeping warbler ”

“ I don't believe there is anybody living who could name at sight every one of the seventy warblers that visit the United States. Some are very gaily coloured and exquisitely marked, as birds coming to us from the tropics have a right to be. Some are quietly clad; some, like the redstart, are dressed quite differently from their mates and young; others, like the yellow warbler, are so nearly alike that you could see no difference between the male and female from the distance of a few feet. ”

“ The female is merely more dull in coloration than the male, and the young even duller. The hybrids between this and the golden-winged warbler are more puzzling, but in a general way they can be recognized; a nearly typical blue-winged warbler with a black throat is probably a Lawrence’s warbler; and a golden-winged warbler without a black throat or cheek and with a variable amount of white and yellow on the under parts and in the wing-bars, is probably a Brewster’s warbler. But there is an immense amount of individual variation between the two species, due to frequent crossing. ”

“ They are very silent, uttering now and then a ‘cheep,’ and always busy searching among the leaves and cones for insects. Among some fifty collected in the first week in August, 1896, there were only two or three adults. The young males have the most coloring, but they in no way approach adult plumage. These great flights of the hermit warbler are intermingled with other species, Hammond flycatcher, Calaveras and lutescent warblers, Cassin vireo, and sometimes Louisiana tanagers and red-brested nuthatches. ”

“ It has been seen foraging on the ground, as well as in the foliage, and flying up into the air to capture insects on the wing.
Behavior.—Virginia’s warbler is a shy, retiring species, spending most of its time not far above the ground in the thick underbrush, where it is not easily seen, as its colors match its surroundings. It is also very lively and active, almost constantly in motion, except when it mounts to the top of some dead bush or small tree to sit and sing. ”

“ To satisfy its appetite, which cannot but be dainty in so thoroughly charming a bird, it lives in low, boggy woods, in such retreats as Wilson's black-capped warbler selects for a like reason. Neither of these two "flycatcher" warblers depends altogether on catching insects on the wing; countless thousands are picked off the under sides of leaves and about the stems of twigs in true warbler fashion. ”

“ The males sing persistently and energetically from the time that they arrive on their territories, hoping to attract their mates, but they are not always successful, especially in regions where the species is rare or not very common, and their nest-building brings no occupant. Edward von S. Dingle writes to me that, at Summerton, S. C., a male prothonotary warbler built a nest in a low stub, but no female was ever seen. He sang frequently and remained in the vicinity for several weeks. ”

“ Florence Merriam Bailey (1923) puts the song in syllables as follows: “whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, wheet, and its call was a faint chip.”
Field marks.—There are no very striking marks on Lucy’s warbler; it is clothed in quiet colors and in general appearance suggests a warbling vireo. The chestnut crown patch of the male can be seen under favorable conditions, but on the female it is seldom in evidence. [134] The chestnut upper tail coverts can be seen only when the bird is in certain positions. ”

“ Strange birds these, in appearance like thrushes, in their haunts and in their teetering motion like sandpipers, but in reality belonging to the same family as the tree-loving wood warblers. A problem not yet solved by ornithologists is: what was the mode of life of 95 the ancestor of the many warblers? Did he cling to and creep along the bark, as the black-and-white warbler, or feed from the ground or the thicket as does the worm-eating? Did he snatch flies on the wing as the necklaced Canadian warbler, or glean from the brook’s edge as our water thrush? ”

“ Like most of the same sex of other Warblers, the female of this species is very shy, and seldom noticed except when an intruder disturbs the nest or when feeding the young after leaving it, but the male Golden-cheeked Warbler is by no means a shy bird. He keeps continually flying from tree to tree in search of insects, and on fine days uttering his song at short intervals from early dawn until after sundown, and before nest building begins shows little alarm upon being approached. ”

“ Its behavior in the defense of its young shows a solicitude for their welfare. Jensen (1923) says: “If a nest with young is discovered, both parent birds try every means possible to draw the attention of the intruder away from the nest. Often I have seen them drop with folded wings from the top of a tree and flutter among the leaves as if each had a broken wing.” And Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) write:
June 15, 1925, a female Audubon warbler was seen which showed concern whenever the observer went near a certain thicket of very small pines and willows. ”

“ The veiling is conspicuous on the throat.” The adult winter female is much like the first winter male, “and may have considerable black on the throat, and even the chin.”
The adult nuptial plumage is acquired mainly by wear, with only slight indications of molt, as in the young bird. Dr. Dwight says of the female: “The adult nuptial plumage is, in extreme examples, hardly distinguishable from the male, but usually the black is much restricted and the chin yellow, merely spotted with black.”
Food.—We have only scattering reports on the food of the black-throated green warbler. ”

“ He is on the ground nearly all the time, moving rapidly along, taking spiders and bugs, overturning leaves, peeping under sticks and into crevices, and every now and then leaping up eight or ten inches, to take his game from beneath some overhanging leaf or branch. Thus each species has its range more or less marked. Draw a line three feet from the ground, and you mark the usual limit of the Kentucky warbler’s quest for food. Six or eight feet higher bounds the usual range of such birds as the worm-eating warbler, the mourning ground warbler, the Maryland yellow-throat. ”

“ Many of them, however, nest in bushes, vines, and shrubbery, and by planting clumps of these near houses something can be done toward increasing the numbers of certain species, as the yellow warbler and the redstart. Because our warblers are chiefly insectivorous, their food habits bar them from the usual bird lunch-counter in times of hard storms. ”

“ Although a number of wood warblers which winter in the Central American highlands are gregarious, those that center in the lowlands are typically solitary. In this, the yellow warbler is no exception. Each wintering bird appears to have its own territory, from which it attempts to drive others of its kind. Trespassers are scolded with insistent chips; or more rarely, soon after his arrival, a male will sing while defending his claim. ”

“ A few, however, remain and build in our parks, gardens and shrubbery. They are all insect-eaters, destroying ants, flies, caterpillars, larvæ, plant lice, canker-worms, and May flies. They are therefore of great value in the protection of vegetation.
The mourning warbler, whose common name is black-throated ground warbler, has its habitat in eastern North America, breeding from northern United States northward; more rare in the Atlantic states. It winters in south-eastern Mexico, and Costa Rica, and thence south to Colombia. During the spring migration this bird is very common. ”

“ I have sat for an hour within a few feet of a pair of these lovely birds and watched them building their nest. The many fine photographs that I have received show that it is an easy subject for close-up pictures; the near presence of the camera does not seem to disturb them in their feeding routine. Many intimate home-life studies have been very successful, for they are brave and devoted parents. Robie W. Tufts (1927) has had a male yellow warbler come at least twice to feed a brood of young that he was holding in his hand, and once he even wiped his bill on his thumb. ”

“ Wheelock (1904) writes in the same vein: “In the spring these oaks are particularly infested with the green caterpillars, and the Warblers never seem to tire of devouring the pests. They lean way over to peer under every leaf, or reach up to the twigs overhead, never missing one. Twenty of these worms is an average meal for a Black-throated Gray Warbler, and the total for a day must reach into the hundreds.”
Behavior.—The black-throated gray warbler is not one of the most active wood warblers except when it is busy feeding ”

“ It shows a striking resemblance to the yellow-throated warbler, but it is much smaller, has no black in the cheeks, and it has a yellow rather than a white mark below the eye. The adult male in spring is light bluish gray above, marked on the head and back with black spots, with a bright yellow throat, two white wing bars, and much white in the tail. Females, young birds, and males in the fall are similar but browner. ”

“ The male has never been seen to assist either at nest-building or incubation.
In the Yosemite region, where Grinnell and Storer (1924) found the black-throated gray warbler in fair numbers among the golden oaks on the north walls of the Valley, they found a nest “placed 5 feet 6 inches above ground in a mountain lilac (Ceanothus integerrimus) bush against a main stem.”
From southern California, James B. Dixon writes to me: “This bird breeds sparingly from 2,500 feet to the tops of our mountain ranges in San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. ”

“ The nest and eggs are not readily distinguishable from those of several other warblers. The males sing frequently from their perch on the topmost twig of a spruce tree, thus misleading one as to the whereabouts of the female and nest. The song resembles somewhat that of the black and white warbler, but is rather less wiry. ”

“ It prefers the fields and roadsides, and before there are leaves enough on the undergrowth to conceal it we may come to know it as well as it is possible to know any bird whose home life is passed so far away. Usually it is the first warbler one sees in the spring in New York and New England. With all the alertness of a flycatcher, it will dart into the air after insects that fly near the ground, keeping up a constant chip, chip, fine and shrill, at one end of the small body, and the liveliest sort of tail motions at the other. The pine warbler often bears it company. ”

“ The adult winter plumage “differs chiefly from first winter dress in possessing a larger, more distinct crown patch,” in the male, and more or less of it in the female. “The color below is uniform and paler.”
Food.—Nothing seems to be known about the summer food of the orange-crowned warbler, but it probably does not differ greatly from that of the lutescent warbler, whose food has been more thoroughly studied. In winter, it probably eats a fair proportion of berries and other fruits, especially when it spends the winter somewhat farther north than insects are to be found in abundance. ”

“ He who would make the acquaintance of the worm-eating warbler must seek it in its own chosen home, far from which it never strays. It is a bird of shaded hillside and dark thickets along watercourses. Though nimble in its movements and an active insect hunter, it is an unobtrusive little warbler, garbed in very modest colors, and is likely wholly, to escape the notice of the unobservant. ”

“ When disturbed or alarmed they are at once alert; a sharp alarm note, something like that of a Yellow-throated Warbler (D. dominica) is uttered, but more forcible and clear cut in its delivery. This is accompanied with a few jerks of the tail, and the bird is off to a neighboring tree. They are found alike in the trees, low bushes, and shrubbery, sometimes on or quite near the ground, and seem to prefer the heavy and more thickly grown woods to trees or bushes more in the open. ”

“ These warblers spend their time near the ground and make their nests there, usually beside a stream; and they utter a short, questioning song as characteristic as it is pretty. Several closely allied species, as the Kentucky warbler (q.v.) , mourning, Connecticut, and McGillivray's warblers, belong to this genus, and visit the United States, while several others are found only in Mexico and Central America. ”