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
_Egg dates._--Arizona: 14 records, May 23 to July 1; 7 records, June 2
to 18, indicating the height of the season.
DENDROICA PETECHIA AESTIVA (Gmelin)
EASTERN YELLOW WARBLER
PLATES 24, 25
HABITS
The familiar yellow warbler, also commonly called the summer yellow bird
or wild canary, is the best known and the most widely known of all of
our wood warblers. It is one of the few birds that almost everybody
knows by one of the above names. It is universally beloved as it comes
to us in the flush of budding spring, gleaming in the shrubbery, like a
rich yellow flame among the freshly opening leaves, or bringing to the
apple orchards a flash of brilliant sunshine to mingle with the
fragrant blossoms. As Dr. Chapman (1907) says: "In his plumes dwells the
gold of the sun, in his voice its brightness and good cheer. We have not
to seek him in the depths of the forest, the haunt of nearly all his
congeners, he comes to us and makes his home near ours."
The yellow warbler, as a species, is also the most widely distributed
member of its family. Its breeding range extends from the Atlantic to
the Pacific in both Canada and the United States (110 degrees of
longitude), and from the Barren Grounds in northern Canada to Mexico and
the Gulf States (40 degrees of latitude). Its winter range covers 54
degrees of longitude and 31 degrees of latitude in Central and South
America. Professor Cooke (1904) says: "The extreme points of the yellow
warbler's range--northern Alaska and western Perú--are farther separated
than the extremes of the range of the black-polled warbler, which is
considered the greatest migrant of the family." But it must be
remembered that the yellow warbler breeds much farther south than the
black-poll.
_Spring._--The spring migration of the yellow warbler is long and
partially circuitous; eastern yellow warblers that winter as far east as
British Guiana probably make a roundabout flight to Central America, as
there seem to be no springtime records for this bird in the West Indies
and few for it in Florida. These birds may fly across the Gulf from
Yucatán to Cuba and Florida, but the main flight is probably directly
north from Yucatán to Louisiana and other points on the Gulf coast; they
have been repeatedly seen flying northward in the middle of the Gulf.
There is also a considerable migration along the coast of Texas, which I
have personally observed.
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