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
_Voice._--Dr. Chapman (1907) quotes C. E. Aiken as follows: "The male
is very musical during the nesting season, uttering his _swee_ ditty
continually as he skips through the bushes in search of his morning
repast; or having satisfied his appetite, he mounts to the top of some
tree in the neighborhood of his nest, and repeats at regular intervals
a song of remarkable fullness for a bird of such minute proportions."
Henry D. Minot (1880) calls the "ordinary note, a sharp _chip_;
song, simple but various (deceptively so); common forms are
_ché-we-ché-we-ché-we-ché-we, wit-a-wi't-wi't-wi't_ (these terminal
notes being partially characteristic of _Helminthophagae_) and
_che-wé-che-wé-che-wé, ché-a-ché-a-ché_". Dr. Linsdale's (1938)
comments on singing males follow:
The song varied from 7 to 10 notes, being usually 8, and it occupied
about 3 seconds. At the beginning the notes were slow and they came more
rapidly at the end. About half a minute elapsed between songs. Another
bird sang 14 times in 3 minutes and 10 seconds. * * * Singing perches
on dead limbs that were rather exposed were the rule, but they were not
often as high as the tops of tall trees. * * * On June 16, 1930, near
Kingston Creek, 7500 feet, a singing male was followed for an hour,
beginning at 7:30 a. m. It sang about every 30 seconds. The territory
over which it moved was surprisingly large, estimated as extending 400
yards along the cañon slope and vertically about 150 yards, from near
the stream to the base of the broken cliffs. * * * The song, compared
with that of the Tolmie warbler had a more rapid rhythm and the notes
were thinner and weaker. It could be distinguished from that of the
Audubon warbler by the lack of rising inflection at the end. The song
was represented by the observer (Miller) as _zdl-zdl-zdl-zdl,
zt-zt-zt-zt_.
_Field marks._--Virginia's warbler, with its plain gray upper parts, is
an inconspicuous bird, and its shy, retiring habits make it difficult to
observe. The chestnut crown patch is not prominent and is often
invisible. The yellow on the chest and throat of the male is quite
variable and in the female and young much reduced or lacking. The best
field marks are the dull yellow rump and upper and under tail covers,
which are more or less conspicuous in old and young birds at all
seasons.
_Enemies._--O. W. Howard (1899) says that "the nests of the bird, like
those of other ground-nesting birds of this locality, are destroyed by
jays and snakes. The jays steal both eggs and young. Often a whole band
of these winged wolves will sweep down on a nest and in less time than
it takes to tell it they will devour the contents and destroy the nest,
the pitiful notes of the helpless parents being drowned by the harsh
notes of the marauders."
Frank C. Cross writes to me that Robert J. Niedrach showed him a nest of
this warbler that contained a young cowbird and one young warbler.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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