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
Margaret Morse Nice (1926) made a very elaborate study of the happenings
at another nest; her account, containing many interesting observations,
to which the reader is referred, is too detailed to be quoted here. Her
table shows that she watched the nest for a total of 26-1/2 hours,
spread over a period of 9 days; during this time, the young were fed by
the male 118 times and by the female 91 times; the average rate of
feeding was once in 7.8 minutes; the female brooded 33 times for a total
of 352 minutes; the faeces were eaten 8 times and carried away 38 times.
Aretas A. Saunders (1938) writes: "After the young have left the nest,
they are much in evidence in the forests. As soon as this happens,
whatever territory there was is abandoned. The young wander away,
keeping together, and the parents care for them, feeding them
frequently for the first few days. Both sexes feed the young, but after
a day or two only the male is likely to be in attendance. Young in this
stage are easily located by the incessant hunger calls. These calls
consist of three or four high-pitched notes, _tsee tsee tu_--_tsee tsee
tsee tu_--_tsee tsee_, etc. I cannot distinguish the call made by young
of this species from those made under similar circumstances by the young
of the black-throated green and blackburnian warblers."
I have also received from Mrs. Doris Huestis Speirs and from Mrs. Louise
de Kiriline Lawrence very full reports on their observations at two
nests of magnolia warblers in Ontario. Many of their observations were
similar to those mentioned; however, the following should be noted here:
Mrs. Lawrence found the incubation period to be about 11 days,
incubation and brooding being by the female only. The young were fed by
both parents by regurgitation for the first 3 days, and after that on
solid food, mostly caterpillars; in 49 minutes, the male fed them 7
times and the female 5 times. During 5-1/2 hours, the male ate or
carried away the fecal sacks 15 times. The young left the nest on the
ninth day after hatching, and were fed by their parents up to the
twenty-fifth day after leaving the nest; after that they were seen
feeding themselves. Mrs. Speirs kept an accurate record of the brooding
periods, which were from 8 to 45 minutes in length, but seldom less than
20 minutes, the female leaving the nest for periods of from 3 to 15
minutes. At times she closed her eyes and seemed to doze; occasionally
she rose and turned the eggs with her feet or bill. The presence of
birds of other species approaching or flying over did not seem to
disturb her but the movements of a red squirrel in the vicinity kept her
alert. The story of this nest ended in tragedy; some predator destroyed
all but one of the young, the female finally disappeared and eventually
there was nothing in the nest but an unhatched egg. A sharp-shinned hawk
had been seen flying over.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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