Life histories of North American wood warblers, Part 1 (of 2)Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American wood warblers, Part 1 (of 2)
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- North America; Passeriformes; Wood warblers
On May 31, 1897, I found a nest of the Lutescent Warbler placed three
feet from the ground in a bunch of vines. * * * On May 3, 1899, * * * I
flushed a bird from a nest in an oak tree, and was surprised to see it
was a Lutescent Warbler. The nest was six feet from the ground and three
feet from the trunk of the tree. A horizontal limb branched out from
the tree and a small branch stuck up from it for about eight inches, and
over this was a great quantity of Spanish moss (_Ramalina retiformis_),
which fell over the horizontal limb. The nest is quite bulky, composed
of leaves, grass and bark strips, lined with hair and fine grass, and
was partially supported by both limbs and the moss, which is all about
it and which forms quite a cover for the eggs.
_Eggs._--The lutescent warbler lays from 3 to 6 eggs to a set, probably
most often 4. These are ovate or short ovate and are practically
lusterless. The white or creamy white ground color is speckled, spotted
or occasionally blotched with shades of reddish brown, such as "russet,"
"Mars brown," "chestnut," and "auburn," intermingled with underlying
shades of "light brownish drab." The markings are usually concentrated
at the large end, but some eggs are speckled more or less evenly over
the entire surface. Small scrawls of blackish brown may be found on some
of the more heavily marked types. The measurements of 50 eggs average
16.2 by 12.6 millimeters: the eggs showing the four extremes measure
=17.7= by 12.8, 16.8 by =13.5=, =14.7= by 12.2, and 15.9 by =11.1=
millimeters (Harris).
_Young._--We seem to have no information on incubation or on the care
and development of the young.
_Plumages._--The molts and plumages are evidently similar to those of
the orange-crowned warbler, though the lutescent is, of course,
decidedly more yellow in all plumages.
_Food._--Prof. Beal (1907) examined the contents of the stomachs of 65
California specimens of this species.
Less than 9 percent of the food is vegetable matter, and is made up of
3 percent of fruit and rather more than 5 percent of various substances,
such as leaf galls, seeds, and rubbish. Fruit was found in only a few
stomachs, but the percentage in each was considerable; figs were the
only variety identified. [Of the 91 percent animal matter,] Hemiptera
are the largest item and amount to over 25 percent, mostly leaf-bugs,
leaf-hoppers, plant-lice, and scales. Plant-lice were found in only one
stomach and scales in 5, of which 3 contained the black olive species.
Beetles amount to about 19 percent of the food, and with the exception
of a few Coccinellidae are of harmful families, among which are a number
of weevils. * * * Caterpillars are eaten rather irregularly, though they
aggregate 24 percent for the year. Stomachs collected in several months
contained none, while in others they amounted to more than half of the
food. * * * Hymenoptera amount nearly to 15 percent, and are mostly
small wasps, though some ants are eaten.
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