The Golden Swamp Warbler is one of the very handsomest of American
birds, being noted for the pureness and mellowness of its plumage. Baird
notes that the habits of this beautiful and interesting warbler were
formerly little known, its geographical distribution being somewhat
irregular and over a narrow range. It is found in the West Indies and
Central America as a migrant, and in the southern region of the United
States. Further west the range widens, and it appears as far north as
Kansas, Central Illinois, and Missouri.
Its favorite resorts are creeks and lagoons overshadowed by large trees,
as well as the borders of sheets of water and the interiors of forests.
It returns early in March to the Southern states, but to Kentucky not
before the last of April, leaving in October. A single brood only is
raised in a season.
A very pretty nest is sometimes built within a Woodpecker's hole in a
stump of a tree, not more than three feet high. Where this occurs the
nest is not shaped round, but is made to conform to the irregular cavity
of the stump. This cavity is deepest at one end, and the nest is closely
packed with dried leaves, broken bits of grasses, stems, mosses, decayed
wood, and other material, the upper part interwoven with fine roots,
varying in size, but all strong, wiry, and slender, and lined with hair.
Other nests have been discovered which were circular in shape. In one
instance the nest was built in a brace hole in a mill, where the birds
could be watched closely as they carried in the materials. They were not
alarmed by the presence of the observer but seemed quite tame.
So far from being noisy and vociferous, Mr. Ridgway describes it as one
of the most silent of all the warblers, while Mr. W. Brewster maintains
that in restlessness few birds equal this species. Not a nook or corner
of his domain but is repeatedly visited during the day. "Now he sings a
few times from the top of some tall willow that leans out over the
stream, sitting motionless among the marsh foliage, fully aware,
perhaps, of the protection afforded by his harmonizing tints. The next
moment he descends to the cool shadows beneath, where dark,
coffee-colored waters, the overflow of a pond or river, stretch back
among the trees. Here he loves to hop about the floating drift-wood, wet
by the lapping of pulsating wavelets, now following up some long,
inclining, half submerged log, peeping into every crevice and
occasionally dragging forth from its concealment a spider or small
beetle, turning alternately its bright yellow breast and olive back
towards the light; now jetting his beautiful tail, or quivering his
wings tremulously, he darts off into some thicket in response to a call
from his mate; or, flying to a neighboring tree trunk, clings for a
moment against the mossy hole to pipe his little strain, or look up the
exact whereabouts of some suspected insect prize."