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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature: Warblers


The Wood Warblers are a group of small often colorful passerine birds restricted to the New World. Most are arboreal, but some like are more terrestrial. Most members of this family are insectivores. There are 119 species world wide, 57 North American species, and 46 Californian species.

Warblers are a small variety of bird found in wooded areas. They usually have gray, brown and yellow feathers. The bird spends much of its time in the northern climates but heads south for winter. Some even spend time in the tropical forests of South America.

Many varieties of the Warbler catch their food in mid-air. Warblers are often referred to as the butterflies of the bird world. Warblers are small, colorful and extremely active insectivores, which flock in large mixes (usually six or more species) during spring and fall migrations. Most warblers can be identified as small birds with sharp, short beaks. They can be gray, olive, or green, many are patterned with bright yellow, red, orange, blue or black and white. Their underparts may be plain, streaked or striped.
The yellow warbler has more yellow than any other warbler bird Although many warblers are yellow, the Yellow Warbler is the most extensively yellow of any species. This widespread species of willows and mangroves is the only warbler with yellow tail spots.

In addition to the migratory form of the Yellow Warbler that breeds in North America, several other resident forms can be found in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Males in these populations can have chestnut caps or even chestnut covering the entire head.

The nests of the Yellow Warbler are frequently parasitized by the Brown-headed Cowbird. The warbler often builds a new nest directly on top of the parasitized one, sometimes resulting in nests with up to six tiers.

Recent DNA-based studies indicate that the Chestnut-sided Warbler is the closest relative of the Yellow Warbler. Both sing similarly phrased songs, and Yellow Warblers regularly sing songs nearly identical to those of the Chestnut-sided Warbler. Yellow Warblers arrive in their breeding range in late spring, generally about April/May, and move to winter quarters again starting as early as July, as soon as the young are fledged.
Mature Hermit Warblers normally grow to be 4½ to 5 inches long. Hermit Warblers are dark gray in coloration on top, and white below, and their flanks are streaked with black. The wings have two diagonal white wing bars. The majority of the Hermit Warbler's head is yellow, and males have a dark black throat, while females have much less black on their throat bib and immature birds have no black throat.

Hermit Warblers are common, but incredibly shy, birds that dwell in open coniferous forests. Their summer breeding range is the majority of the west coast of the United States up to Washington. They will sometimes winter in south-west California, but they are migratory and will winter in Central America as far south as Panama.

Nests are neat and cup-shaped, constructed from stems, grass, twigs, and pine needles positioned near the tip of a branch high in a conifer tree. The female will lay between 3 to 5 eggs, which are white in color and heavily spotted with brown and lilac speckles. Other incubation and nesting habits are mostly unknown. Like most warblers the Hermit Warbler eats a strict diet of insects and spiders, and can often be found hanging upside-down from the ends of conifer branches, like a chickadee, probing for food.
warblers love California nature Lucy's Warblers inhabit riparian mesquite and brushy country of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. Lucy's is the only warbler besides Prothonotary to nest in cavities. Habitat loss and to a lesser extent, Brown-headed Cowbird parasitism are threatening this species, and populations are diminishing throughout its breeding range.

Lucy's Warblers migrate to western Mexico in winter. These strictly insectivorous birds forage actively, looking for the caterpillars, beetles, and leafhoppers that compose much of their diet. Lucy's Warbler is closely related to Virginia's Warbler, Nashville Warbler and Colima Warbler. The common name and binomial of this species commemorate Lucy Hunter Baird, daughter of ornithologist Spencer Fullerton Baird.

Lucy's Warbler is rather nondescript compared to other wood-warblers. Its head and upperparts are pale gray, while underparts are whitish. It has a white eyering and a small, pointed bill. Both sexes have a rufous rump, a diagnostic field mark. Adult males also have a small rusty crown patch. Juveniles are paler, with a tawny rump and buffy wingbars.
The MacGillivray's Warbler was named by John James Audubon in honor of Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray, although the proper credit to its discovery goes to John Kirk Townsend. The scientific name "tolmiei" was given in honor of William Fraser Tolmie.

Adult MacGillivray's Warblers will grow to be approximately 13 cm {5 to 6 inches} in length. They are an olive-green color on their upperparts and dull yellow below. Males have black heads and breasts, while females and immature birds have drab light gray heads and white eye-rings. MacGillivray's Warblers are almost identical to their eastern counterparts, the Mourning Warblers, the only true difference between the two species being the Mourning Warbler's lack of an eye-ring.

MacGillivray's Warblers are migratory and spend their summers in temperate forests located in the western United States, and in boreal forests of west Canada. In autumn, these birds will migrate back to Central America, where they will stay in temperate shrublands for the winter.
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