Birds and All Nature, Vol. 6, No. 1, June 1899: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and All Nature, Vol. 6, No. 1, June 1899: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
This is not a tree-top inhabiting species, but seems to prefer the
middle branches of the trees or the tops of shrubbery, often descending
to the ground and gleaning there much after the fashion of the Maryland
Yellow-throat. In the higher woods free from underbrush he seems to
prefer ground gleaning, but where low underbrush affords a place for
low gleaning he is seldom seen on the ground. In village parks he is
fond of a much higher perch, and must be looked for there well up in
the trees, even to the topmost branches, where he gleans among the
bursting buds and new leaves. On the Oberlin College campus he is a
regular spring visitor in early May, and here seems to appreciate
his environment and rare opportunities, for he sings his best to the
accompaniment of the medley of pianos in the Conservatory of Music
across the way, and the deeper tones of the great pipe organ in the
chapel hard by. Here I have heard him singing at all hours of the day,
while in the woods his song is less often given. One is at a loss to
assign a reason for the decided preference for the college campus,
which is in the center of the village activities. Rumbling wagons and
tramping feet cause the birds not the slightest alarm, but swiftly
moving bicycles act upon the birds' nervous system much as upon that of
an elderly woman.
The song of this warbler is variously rendered by the various writers
upon bird songs. None of these renderings seems to describe the song
as I hear it on the college campus. It is singing as I write: "_Tu euu
euu e-e-e-e-e!_" A variation sounds, "_C'weu, c'weu, c'wee-e-e-e_;"
sometimes "_c'weu, c'weu, c'w', c'w', c'wee-ee-e-e-e_." There is
also often a single phrase which sounds more like a scolding note
than a song. It is: "_Tw', tw', tw', tw', twee'e-e-e-e-e_," or even
"_Z-z-e-e-e-e_," rarely it may sound simply "_Z-z-z-z-z-z_." The song
is uttered in a spirited manner while the bird is feeding and flitting
about in the foliage, it interfering with the feeding only as a sort of
after-thought, causing a momentary pause as the bird raises his head
and straightens his body for the effort. It is one of the warbler songs
that are easily recognized and not readily forgotten.
Were it not for the white spot or patch on the wing of both male and
female at all seasons of the year and in all plumages, this warbler
would easily escape the notice of all but the alert ornithologist. His
black throat and breast, white belly and blue back and wings and tail
are not conspicuous in the trees and foliage.
The black-throated blue warbler spends the winter months in Guatemala
and the West Indies, and migrates north to Labrador and Hudson's Bay,
nesting there and in the northern parts of the United States. It ranges
west to the border of the plains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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