Nashville Warbler
Oreothlypis ruficapilla
Summary 5
The Nashville warbler (Oreothlypis ruficapilla) is a small songbird in the New World warbler family, found in North and Central America. It breeds in parts of the northern and western United States and southern Canada, and migrates to winter in southern California and Texas, Mexico, and the north of Central America. It has a gray head and a green back, and its underparts are yellow and white.
Description 6
The Nashville warbler is a small warbler. Both male and female Nashville warblers have a gray head fading into a greenish back and wings, a white belly and a yellow throat and breast. They have a complete white eye ring, no wing bars, and a thin pointed black bill. Adult males have a rusty brown patch on their crown, which is usually hard to see and often covered by gray feathers. Males will raise it slightly when agitated. Females and immature birds have a duller olive-grey head, and less bold yellow on their throat. The Nashville warbler is closely related to Virginia's warbler, Lucy's warbler, and the Colima warbler, the four sharing generally similar plumage.
Measurements:
The song of the nominate subspecies consists of a rapid seewit-seewit-seewit-ti-ti-ti. Males sing from open perches on the nesting territory. The call sounds like a high seet. Western birds of the race ridgwayi have a slightly lower-pitched, richer song, and a sharper call note.
Distribution and habitat 6
Nashville warblers breed in two distinct areas, one in Canada and the northeastern United States, and another in the western United States. The northeastern part of its range extends from Côte-Nord and Cape Breton Island in eastern Canada to central Alberta. For the most part, it only breeds between about 52 and 45.5 degrees north, but it is also found less commonly in the Appalachians of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Although named after Nashville, Tennessee, the Nashville warbler only visits that area during migration. They migrate to southernmost Texas and California, mid-Mexico, and the northernmost parts of Central America (Guatemala and El Salvador) in winter. In their breeding range, they prefer open mixed woods and bog habitats.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Laura Gooch, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/19474221@N08/4862883389
- (c) Kenneth Cole Schneider, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosyfinch/5688398011/
- (c) Laurel PARSHALL, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/llp_unesolitaire/9354659421/
- (c) JanetandPhil, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/dharma_for_one/26231233183/
- Adapted by Desmon M Dunn from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oreothlypis_ruficapilla
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_warbler
