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
_Plumages._--Dr. Dwight (1900) calls the natal down "sepia-brown," and
describes the juvenal plumage as "above, dark sepia-brown, soon fading,
usually paler on the crown and obscurely streaked with clove-brown.
Wings and tail dull black, chiefly edged with ashy or plumbeous gray,
the secondaries, tertiaries and wing coverts with drab, two wing bands
pale buff; the rectrices white on inner web of basal half. Below, pale
sulphur-yellow, dusky or grayish on the throat, and streaked or mottled
except on the abdomen and crissum with deep olive-brown. Lores and
orbital region ashy brown."
The amount of yellow on the under parts is quite variable, the youngest
nestlings showing very little or none at all. The sexes are practically
alike in the juvenal plumage, but become recognizable during the first
fall.
The postjuvenal molt begins early in July and involves all the contour
plumage and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or the tail.
This produces the first winter plumages, in which the young of each sex
closely resemble their respective adult counterparts at that season but
the colors are all duller, the crown and back are browner, there is a
dusky band on the upper breast, and the black streaking is paler or
obscure.
Dr. Dwight (1900) says: "First nuptial plumage acquired by a partial
prenuptial moult which involves most of the body plumage, the wing
coverts and sometimes a few tertiaries, but not the rest of the wings
nor the tail. Young and old become practically indistinguishable except
by the wings and tail, especially the primary coverts, all of which are
usually browner and more worn than in adults." According to Dickey and
van Rossem (1938) this takes place in El Salvador early in April and is
completed very rapidly.
Subsequent molts of adults consist of a complete postnuptial molt in
July and August and an extensive prenuptial molt in April, as described
above. Dr. Chapman (1907) says that the adult male in the fall is quite
unlike the spring male; "crown and nape brownish gray; eye-ring whitish
[instead of white spot below and a white line behind the eye]; * * *
rump yellow; tail as in Spring; wing-coverts _tipped_ [instead of
broadly marked and forming a conspicuous white patch] with white forming
two white bars; below yellow, sides with partly concealed black streaks,
upper breast with a faint dusky band." The fall female differs in a
similar way from the spring female, having a browner crown and the dusky
band on the upper breast well developed, much as in the young male in
the fall. The female is always much duller than the male in all
plumages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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