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
The following observation on the food habits of a Golden-winged Warbler
(_Vermivora chrysoptera_), made in the vicinity of Port Tobacco (Charles
Co.), Maryland on May 6, 1933, seems worthy of mention, inasmuch as
little specific information on the dietary habits of this species has
been recorded. About 1:30 we observed a single individual of this
species actively feeding in a low shrubbery growth of pawpaw (_Asimina
triloba_), which was in full bloom at this date. Closer observation
revealed that the bird was probing about inside the flowers, and
apparently was getting some kind of larvae. Examination of the
flowers revealed that they were infested with a small, brown-headed
lepidopterous larva. Dissection of a large number of flowers indicated
that the infestation was high, the majority of flowers having one larva,
although in many cases two were present. Several infested flowers were
collected for the purpose of rearing the insects to the adult stage
under laboratory conditions. The cycle was completed without difficulty,
the adults emerging within twelve days. These were examined by Dr. Carl
Heinrich of the U. S. National Museum and found to be _Talponia
plummeriana_ Busck, a small brightly colored Tortricid, the only known
food plant of which is the pawpaw.
_Behavior._--A favorite locality for the golden-winged warbler to spend
the summer in eastern Massachusetts may be the border of a wooded swamp
where tall elm and maple trees shade a dense undergrowth of ferns and
other moisture-loving plants, a swamp which runs out toward drier ground
where abounds a growth of gray birches or a tangle of raspberry canes,
wild grapevines, and goldenrod. Such a spot furnishes countless
situations for hiding the nest in the thick vegetation growing in the
half-wet half-dry ground, and also a source of food near at hand in the
high branches of the trees. Much the same conditions exist along the
course of a brook winding through second growth, or near orchards or old
neglected weedy pastures.
Sometimes, as William Brewster (1906) points out, the bird may frequent
"dry hillsides covered with a young sprout growth of oak, hickory or
maple."
In a more southern latitude the habitat may be quite different. Maurice
Brooks (1940), speaking of the bird in the central Allegheny Mountain
region, says: "Shunning the swamps which it frequents in other portions
of its range, it is highly characteristic of the 'chestnut sprout'
association, where the males choose dead chestnuts for perches from
which to sing. It is also fairly common in the pitch and scrub pine
regions on the hills just back of the Ohio river, but becomes less
common toward the eastern portion of the territory with which this
paper deals. It ascends to at least 4,000 feet in Giles Co., Va."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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