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
Francis H. Allen (MS.) gives me several somewhat similar renderings, and
mentions a migrating bird that sang for a long time early one morning in
the spruces and hemlock near his house: "It was such steady and
unintermittent singing as I have seldom if ever heard from any other
warbler, and the bird alternated very regularly between the first and
second songs--_weetle weetle weetle weet_, then _will´ you wée sip_, or
_will´ you will´ you wée sip_, the latter song not so emphatic as usual
and weaker than the other." This alternation is not uncommon with some
species of warblers, as the redstart, but I have no records of it for
the magnolia. He also mentions a common call note, "a dry 2-syllabled
note, _tizic_, a little suggestive, perhaps, of the song of the
yellow-bellied flycatcher", which he thinks has no counterpart among our
warbler notes.
Aretas A. Saunders has lately sent me a full account of the song of this
warbler, saying, in part: "The song of the magnolia warbler is a short
one, commonly of six or seven notes, of a weak, rather colorless, but
musical quality. My 49 records of this song show that the number of
notes varies from 4 to 9, all but 8 of them being of either 6 or 7
notes. The 6-note songs usually consist of three, 2-note phrases. The
first two are just alike, the 2 notes of each phrase on different
pitches. The third phrase is either higher or lower in pitch, and
frequently with the order of pitch from low to high or from high to low
reversed.
"The majority of the songs have a range, in pitch, of two or two and a
half tones, nearly always between A´´´ and D´´´´. A few songs range as
much as three and a half tones, and may be as low as F´´´ or up to
E flat´´´´, but the range for the species is only five tones.
"The songs are quite short, ranging from 3/5 second to 1-2/5 seconds.
Individual birds often sing two or three different songs, or vary songs
by dropping or adding notes.
"The song period extends from the arrival of the bird in migration to
late July or early August. The average date of the last song in 14 years
in Allegany Park is August 1. The earliest is July 26, 1933, and the
latest August 15, 1937."
_Enemies._--Dr. Friedmann (1929) mentions only a few cases in which the
magnolia warbler has been imposed upon by the cowbird, but E. H. Eaton
(1914), says that the cowbird "seems to make a specialty of presenting
this Warbler with one or more of its eggs, generally puncturing the eggs
of the Magnolia before leaving the nest." However, it is probable that
this warbler is a rather uncommon victim, perhaps because the cowbird is
not particularly common in the places where the warbler breeds.
Harold S. Peters (1936) lists two lice, _Degeeriella eustigma_ (Kellogg)
and _Myrsidea incerta_ (Kellogg), as external parasites on this warbler.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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