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
Behind the house in Lexington, Mass., where I lived for years, there was
a little hill, sparsely covered with locust trees, to the southward from
my dooryard. This hill was a favorite resort for warblers in late
summer. No warbler bred within a mile of the spot, except the summer
yellowbird, to use the old name, yet soon after the first of July the
black-and-white warblers began to assemble there. Not infrequently I
have seen a single bird come to the hill, flying in from the north
across Lexington Common, and join others there. The small company might
remain for an hour or more, frequently singing (evidently adult males)
as the birds fed in the locust trees.
Later in the season, as August advances, migration appears more evident.
The birds now gather in larger numbers, sometimes as many as eight or
ten; they pause in the locust trees for a shorter time before flying
off; they are no longer in song; and the majority of the birds have
white cheeks, most of them presumably young birds. Although they are
almost silent as they climb about feeding, if you stand quietly in the
midst of a company of four or five, now and then you may hear a faint
note, and at once the note comes from all sides, each bird apparently
reporting its whereabouts--a sound which calls to mind the south-bound
migrants as they roam through the quiet autumn woods. Other warblers,
unquestionably migrants, visit this hillside in August, notably the
Tennessee, an early arrival who has already traveled a long way.
The fall migration of the black-and-white is long-drawn-out. The bird
does not depend, like many of the warblers, on finding food among the
foliage, so it may linger long after the trees are bare of leaves,
sometimes, here in New England, well into October. I saw a bird in
eastern Massachusetts on October 23, 1940, a very late date.
_Winter._--Dr. Alexander F. Skutch (MS.) sent to A. C. Bent the
following comprehensive account of the bird on its winter quarters:
"None of our warblers is more catholic in its choice of a winter home
than the black-and-white. Upon its departure from its nesting range, it
spreads over a vast area from the Gulf States south to Ecuador and
Venezuela, from the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America eastward
through the Antilles. And in the mountainous regions of its winter range
it does not, like so many members of the family, restrict itself to a
particular altitudinal zone, but on the contrary scatters from sea level
high up into the mountains. As a result of this wide dispersion,
latitudinal and altitudinal, it appears to be nowhere abundant in
Central America during the winter months, yet it has been recorded from
more widely scattered localities than most other winter visitants. On
the southern coast of Jamaica, in December 1930, I found a greater
concentration of individuals than I have ever seen in Central America
during midwinter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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