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
This warbler seems to be a rare spring migrant through Florida; A. H.
Howell (1932) gives seven records, from Key West to Pensacola, in March
and April. The few records available seem to indicate that the main
migration route is along the eastern coasts of Central America (Dr.
Skutch tells me that he sees it both spring and fall in Costa Rica),
Mexico, and Texas to the Mississippi Valley, whence it spreads out to
reach its wide breeding range. Some birds may reach Florida via Cuba,
and we have some evidence that it migrates across the Gulf of Mexico. It
is common on the coast of Texas in spring.
Gerald Thayer wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) that about Monadnock, N. H.,
the Tennessee warbler is "very rare, and seemingly irregular. It haunts
blossoming apple trees, big elms, and roadside copses of mixed deciduous
second growth."
At Buckeye Lake, Ohio, according to Milton B. Trautman (1940), "the
daily and seasonal numbers of no warbler species fluctuated as greatly
as did those of the Tennessee Warbler. During some spring migrations it
was decidedly uncommon, and never more than 5 individuals were recorded
in a day nor more than 35 for the spring. During other years as many as
250 individuals (May 16, 1929) were observed in a day, and more than 800
were noted during the migration. * * * The birds in spring chiefly
inhabited the upper half of the taller trees of both upland and lowland
wooded areas and also the upper parts of rows or groups of tall trees
along the lake shore, streams, and about farmhouses."
It must have been a very common migrant in Minnesota at one time, for
Dr. Roberts (1936) writes:
Formerly, when all Warblers were more abundant than now, the little
Tennessee flooded the tree-tops for a week or ten days in such numbers
as to equal, if not excel, all other species put together, excepting
only the Myrtle. Insignificant in size and inconspicuous in garb, it
made up for these shortcomings by numbers and incessant vocal effort,
indifferent performer though it is. It is still one of the commonest
species. It keeps well up among the topmost branches and moves
restlessly about in search of food, singing meanwhile with little
apparent effort and announcing its passage from one tree-top to another
by a succession of sharp little _yeap-yeaps_ that are almost as
characteristic to the trained ear as the song itself.
A. D. Henderson, of Belvedere, Alberta, tells me that the Tennessee
warbler is probably the most numerous of the warblers which spend the
summer in the territory around Belvedere and in the Fort Assiniboine
District. It breeds mainly in poplar woods, but I have also found nests
in dry muskeg.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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