Yucatán--Chichén-Itzá, October 7. Honduras--Tela, September 8.
Nicaragua--Río Escondido, September 2. Costa Rica--Bonilla, August 28.
Panamá--Obaldia, September 15. Colombia--Gaira, September 11.
_Banding records._--Banding provides a hint as to the life-span of the
prothonotary warbler. One banded as an immature on June 16, 1940, in
Convis township, Calhoun County, Mich., was color banded when it
returned to the same place in 1942. Subsequently it was identified by
the colored band on May 14, 1944, and May 10, 1945.
_Casual records._--The prothonotary warbler was reported at Nassau,
Bahamas, on August 29, 1898. It has been twice reported at Bermuda: one
shot from a flock in the fall of 1874, and another specimen collected in
November 1903. A single bird was observed at Mammoth Hot Springs,
Yellowstone Park, Wyo., on September 10, 1931. There are two records for
Arizona. On May 1, 1884, a specimen was taken near Tucson at an altitude
of 2,300 feet, the highest record of the species in the United States.
Another specimen was taken September 8, 1924, at Cave Creek, 4 miles
northeast of Paradise in the Chiricahua Mountains.
_Egg dates._ Florida: 8 records, April 18 to May 9; 5 records, April 28
to 30.
Illinois: 79 records, May 6 to June 21; 46 records, May 20 to June 4,
indicating the height of the season.
Iowa: 56 records, May 15 to June 26; 36 records, May 27 to June 6
(Harris).
LYMNOTHLYPIS SWAINSONII (Audubon)
SWAINSON'S WARBLER
CONTRIBUTED BY EDWARD VON SIEBOLD DINGLE
PLATES 7-9
HABITS
"The history of our knowledge of Swainson's Warbler," write Brooks and
Legg (1942), "is a curious one, falling into definite periods." This
bird was discovered in the spring of 1832 by the Rev. John Bachman "near
the banks of the Edisto River, South Carolina." His discovery of the
bird is described as follows: "I was first attracted by the novelty of
its notes, four or five in number, repeated at intervals of five or six
minutes apart. These notes were loud, clear, and more like a whistle
than a song. They resembled the sounds of some extraordinary
ventriloquist in such a degree, that I supposed the bird much farther
from me than it really was; for after some trouble caused by these
fictitious notes, I perceived it near to me and soon shot it" (Audubon,
1841). Dr. Bachman took five specimens; then, up to the spring of 1884,
Swainson's warbler remained almost a lost species, for according to
Brewster (1885a) there is no record of more than eight or nine birds
being collected. Wayne, through collections and field work near
Charleston, opened a productive 25-year period in the history of
_swainsonii_, in which many valuable contributions were made by various
observers. From 1910 to 1930 the name _swainsonii_ was practically
absent from the pages of current ornithological literature.
Brewster (1885a) has given us the best description of the bird's haunts
in the low country:
The particular kind of swamp to which he is most partial is known in
local parlance as a "pine-land gall." It is usually a depression in the
otherwise level surface, down which winds a brook, in places flowing
swiftly between well-defined banks, in others divided into several
sluggish channels or spreading about in stagnant pools, margined by a
dense growth of cane, and covered with lily leaves or other aquatic
vegetation. Its course through the open pine-lands is sharply marked by
a belt of hardwood trees nourished to grand proportions by the rich soil
and abundant moisture. Beneath, crumbling logs cumber the ground, while
an undergrowth of dogwood (_Cornus florida_), sassafras, viburnum, etc.,
is interlaced and made well-nigh impenetrable by a network of grapevines
and greenbriar. These belts--river bottoms they are in miniature--rarely
exceed a few rods in width; they may extend miles in a nearly straight
line.
The writer has had a long acquaintance with Swainson's warbler in the
low country of Carolina. Except during September (fall migration) the
birds were almost never seen out of sight of substantial growths of
cane, even when the nests were built in bushes, low trees, or vines.
This has been the experience of practically all observers and, as Brooks
and Legg (1942) remark, "an idée fixe among ornithologists" existed; the
familiar description of habitat by Brewster (1885a) became a dictum:
"Briefly, four things seem indispensible to his existence, viz., water,
tangled thickets, patches of cane, and a rank growth of semi-aquatic
plants."
Hence, the ornithological world received a surprise to learn that
_swainsonii_ was a summer resident and breeder in different localities
of high altitude in the Appalachian Chain. Although several observers
have found the bird nesting beyond the limits of the Coastal Plain, even
in Piedmont territory, as La Prade (1922) did at 1,050 feet above sea
level, it was E. A. Williams (1935) who first detected it in a truly
mountainous terrain. During two successive summers he found birds near
Tryon, N. C., "in open woods."
Loomis (1887) was quite prophetic when, in recording a Swainson's
warbler from Chester, S. C., "in the heart of the Piedmont Region, one
hundred and fifty miles from the coast," he wrote: "It awakens the mind
to the possibility of an Up-Country habitat, yet awaiting discovery,
where the true centre of abundance will finally be located."
The efforts of Brooks and Legg (1942) have shown Swainson's warbler to
be a locally common summer resident in south-central West Virginia up to
an elevation of 2,000 feet above sea level; no positive evidence of
breeding has been found, but it undoubtedly does breed. In Tennessee,
Wetmore (1939) has found the bird in mountainous country at 3,000 feet.
The question naturally arises, Did Swainson's warbler always inhabit
higher altitudes, or is this a recent extension of range and partial
change of habitat? The answer will probably never be found; but study of
changing conditions in its low country habitat for the past several
decades may throw light on this interesting problem. Within the writer's
experience the canebrake areas have long been exposed to forest fires,
timber cutting, overgrazing, drainage, and the construction of a
hydroelectric project, as a result of which thousands of acres of
timbered swampland are now under water.
_Spring._--The birds that winter in Jamaica enter the United States
through Florida, but it is probable that those from Yucatán make a
direct flight across the Gulf to the delta of the Mississippi. The
earliest recorded spring arrival in the United States was on March 22,
1890, on the lower Suwanee River. The same year the species was taken at
the Tortugas, March 25 to April 5 (Chapman, 1907). The earliest arrival
near New Orleans, was March 30, 1905 (Kopman, 1915). Meanley (MS.)
records it from central Georgia on March 31, 1944. Swainson's warbler
reaches the vicinity of Charleston, S. C, during the first week of
April, the earliest being the fifth of that month.
_Nesting._--Nests are built in bushes, canes, masses of vines, and
briers; 10 feet seems to be the maximum height from the ground, while
some nests have been found as low as 2 feet. The average elevation would
be around 3 feet. As many nests are built over dry ground as over water.
The nest is quite bulky and loosely constructed; a typical one in situ
looks like a bunch of leaves lodged in a bush or cane, as the stems
point upward. The outer walls of the nest are composed of various leaves
such as oak, gum, maple, tupelo, and cane; the inner walls are usually
of cane, while the lining is of pine needles, black fiber of moss
_Tillandsia_, cypress leaves, rootlets, or grass stems. Sometimes
horsehair is also present.
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: A few more notes on the nesting of Swainson's warbler
may well be added to the above general statements. Brewster's (1885b)
nests, taken by Wayne in the low country of South Carolina, are
evidently typical for that region. All four of these nests were in
canes. Wayne (1886) says that the nests "are generally built in canes,"
but he has also found them "in small bushes, and in one instance in a
climbing vine, by the side of a large public road." Brewster (1885b)
gives the measurements of two of his nests; the smallest of the four
measures--
externally 3.50 in diameter by 3.00 in depth; internally 1.50 in
diameter by 1.50 in depth; the greatest thickness of the rim or outer
wall being 1.00. * * * The nest June 27 is very much larger, in fact
quite the largest specimen that I have seen, measuring externally 5.00
in diameter by 6.00 in depth; internally 1.50 in diameter by 1.25 in
depth; with the rim in places 1.75 thick. It is shaped like an inverted
cone, the apex extending down nearly to the point of junction of the
numerous fascicled stems which surround and support its sides. Its total
bulk fully equals the average nest of our Crow Blackbird, while it is
not nearly as finished a specimen of bird architecture. Indeed it would
be difficult to imagine anything ruder than its outer walls,--composed
of mud-soaked leaves of the sweet gum, water oak, holly, and cane,
thrown together into a loose mass, bristling with rough stems, and
wholly devoid of symmetry or regularity of outline. The interior,
however, lined with pine needles, moss fibre, black rootlets, and a
little horse-hair, is not less smooth and rounded than in the other
specimens.
Troup D. Perry (1887), with his friend George Noble, found no less than
24 nests near Savannah, Ga., in 1887; some of these were in gall or
myrtle bushes and one was in a saw palmetto 2-1/2 feet high. S. A.
Grimes has sent us a photograph of a nest on the broad leaf of a saw
palmetto (pl. 7). Albert J. Kirn (1918) says of the nesting sites of
Swainson's warbler in Oklahoma: "A well shaded clump of trees in the
woods, such a place as would suggest itself for a Wood Thrush, yet not
exactly so, with considerable 'buck brush' undergrowth, but no grass or
weeds is selected for a nesting site. In the top of this 'buck brush'
usually about two feet high the nest is built; about half of the nests
found were close to the river bank--the Little Caney River. All but two
were built in the brushy undergrowth. These two were fastened to briers
and slender brush and were higher up, 3.5 and 4 feet."
F. M. Jones wrote to Brooks and Legg (1942) of a nest found in
southwestern Virginia: "This nest was in a very dense growth of
rhododendron bushes close to a stream of water where the sunlight never
penetrated. It was 5 ft. 6 in. up, built in the forks of a slender beech
limb which grew across the top of a rhododendron bush (_R. maximum_) and
partly supported by the top of the rhododendron. * * * The outside of
the nest measured 7 in. wide by 5 in. deep and the inside 2 in. wide by
1-13/16 in. deep."
It is evident, from the above and other similar accounts that, at higher
elevations northward and westward, Swainson's warbler nests in bushes
and vines where there are no canes to be found.]
_Eggs._--Swainson's warbler usually lays three eggs; sets of four are
rare and of five very rare. Although there are records of nests
containing two incubated eggs or two young birds, these probably
represent incomplete sets or cases where an egg or a nestling has been
destroyed.
Eggs are quite globular, the two ends sometimes scarcely
distinguishable; the shell is thick and has a distinct polish; the
ground color is white with a bluish tinge; however, a set of three eggs
in the writer's collection had a faint greenish tinge, while several
observers describe sets of pale pink or buffy white.
Rarely, spotted eggs are found. Wayne (1910) says: "Spotted eggs are,
however, very rare and I have found only four or five nests containing
them." The only spotted egg the writer has found is in the set referred
to above; of these, two are immaculate, while the third is "faintly
though distinctly speckled around the larger end with reddish brown"
(Dingle, 1926).
Brewster (1885b) describes a set collected by the late Arthur T. Wayne:
"One is perfectly plain; another * * * has two or three minute specks
which may be genuine shell markings; while the third is unmistakably
spotted and blotched with pale lilac. Over most of the surface these
markings are fine, faint, and sparsely distributed, but about the larger
end they become coarser, thicker, and deeper colored, forming a
well-defined ring or wreath."
Burleigh (1923) writes: "Unlike all the descriptions I had read, and the
few eggs I had seen, these were light pink in ground color and dotted
distinctly over the entire surface with light brown spots, this almost
forming a wreath at the larger end of one egg." These eggs were found
near Augusta, Ga., and the parent was secured.
Wayne (1910) was of the opinion that two broods are raised in a season.
[AUTHOR'S NOTE: The measurements of 50 eggs average 19.5 by 15.0
millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =21.6= by 14.2,
20.8 by =16.0=, =18.0= by 14.1, and 19.5 by =13.5= millimeters
(Harris).]
_Plumages._--[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ridgway (1902) describes the juvenal
plumage of Swainson's warbler as follows: "Head, neck, back, rump, upper
tail-coverts, chest, sides, and flanks plain brown (varying from
broccoli to bister); rest of under parts whitish or dull pale yellowish,
more or less clouded with brown; middle and greater wing-coverts
indistinctly tipped with cinnamon-brown; otherwise like adults, but no
trace of lighter superciliary nor darker postocular stripes." Specimens
that I have seen in this plumage are more nearly "cinnamon-brown" than
the colors named above on the back and wing coverts, and the latter show
very little evidence of cinnamon tips.]
The postjuvenal molt, which evidently includes only the contour plumage
and the wing coverts, occurs early in the summer; I have seen young
birds beginning to acquire the first winter plumage as early as June 12,
and others that had nearly completed the molt on July 20; these birds
were not yet fully grown. Wayne (1910) writes: "I have taken young birds
which were as large as the adults and which were acquiring their
autumnal plumage as early as June 2, but it must be borne in mind that
the season in which these young were taken (1906) was exceptionally
advanced."
Brewster (1885a) describes the young bird in its fall plumage as
follows: "Entire upper parts rich olive strongly tinged with
reddish-brown, the crown scarcely deeper-colored than the back, the
wings a trifle redder; loral stripe blackish; superciliary stripe tinged
with yellow; under parts strongly yellowish, otherwise like the adult."
The nuptial plumage is apparently assumed by wear and fading, the
reddish-brown and yellowish colors becoming much duller. There are no
specimens available of either young or adult birds that indicate a
prenuptial molt.
The postnuptial molt seems to occur mainly in August, but perhaps
earlier, and is evidently complete; I have seen birds in full, fresh
autumn plumage as early as August 28. This fresh plumage is similar to
the spring plumage, but the crown and back are nearly uniform brown, the
crown is darker than in spring, the back is browner than in spring, and
the breast and flanks are more or less clouded with grayish.
_Food._--Howell (1924) says that "four stomachs of this bird from
Alabama contained remains of caterpillars, spiders, and Hymenoptera
(ants, bees, etc.)."
Brewster (1885a) considered the principal food to be small coleopterous
insects, "as well as some small green worms that are found on water
plants, such as the pond lily (_Nymphaea odorata_) and the Nelumbium
(_Cyamus flavicomus_).
_Behavior._--Swainson's warbler is an unsuspicious bird and can be
easily observed in its haunts where the vegetation is not too dense and
tangled and the tree canopy overhead partially open. The neutral color
of the bird is often apt to conceal him in the shadowy undergrowth.
Singing males usually remain on the same perch during their periods of
song, apparently disinclined to move. He often sings from the ground
during insect hunting; Meanley (MS.) says: "It was so wrapped up in its
song as to be absolutely unconcerned; it sang at my very feet with its
head thrown back, its beak pointing perpendicularly toward the sky,
pouring forth its resounding melody in the best of warbler fashion."
The female is a close sitter, and the observer has usually to touch her
before she leaves the nest. Grimes (1936) writes: "This bird would not
leave her eggs until _pushed_ off, and when I held my hand over the nest
she straddled my fingers in trying to get back onto it. * * * When I did
drive her away from the nest she fluttered along on the ground in the
manner of a crippled bird, her actions manifestly intended to induce me
to follow. This bird certainly was not badly frightened, for within a
few minutes she was back on her nest, accepting deerflies from my
fingers and swallowing them with apparent relish."
Brewster (1885a) gives an admirable portrayal:
His gait is distinctly a walk, his motions gliding and graceful. Upon
alighting in the branches, after being flushed from the ground, he
assumes a statuesque attitude, like that of a startled Thrush. While
singing he takes an easier posture, but rarely moves on his perch. If
desirous of changing his position he flies from branch to branch instead
of hopping through the twigs in the manner of most Warblers. Under the
influence of excitement or jealousy he sometimes jets his tail, droops
his wings, and raises the feathers of the crown in a loose crest, but
the tail is never jerked like that of a _Geothlypis_, or wagged like
that of a _Siurus_. On the contrary, his movements are all deliberate
and composed, his disposition sedentary and phlegmatic.
_Voice._--The bird student who hears the song of Swainson's warbler as
he sings in his wooded retreat is fortunate, for it is one of the
outstanding warbler songs and, once heard, leaves a lasting impression
upon the listener. At a distance it bears much resemblance to the songs
of the hooded warbler and the Louisiana water-thrush. Close up, however,
the appealing quality, lacking in the other two, impresses the listener
strongly. The song has, in the majority of individuals, a highly
ventriloquial effect, but the writer has listened to birds whose notes
did not in the slightest degree possess this quality.
The song varies in length and number of notes but can be separated into
two distinct parts; the first few notes are uttered rather slowly, the
last ones more rapidly and on a descending scale. The second part
closely follows the first, with no apparent separation. Brooks and
Legg (1942) write: "It might be translated as _whee, whee, whee,
whip-poor-will_, the first two (or three) introductory notes on an even
pitch, the last _whee_ a half-tone lower, and the slurred phrase with
_will_ separated into two syllables, and accented on the _whip_ and on
the _wi_-part of the _will_. The last phrase sounded at times remarkably
like one of the songs of the White-eyed Vireo."
When the singer begins his performance, the bill is pointed directly up,
and he seems entirely unconscious of anything but his own musical
efforts. "During his intervals of silence," says N. C. Brown (1878), "he
remains motionless, with plumage ruffled, as if completely lost in
musical reverie." Brewster (1885a) adds:
It is very loud, very rich, very beautiful, while it has an
indescribably tender quality that thrills the senses after the sound has
ceased. * * * Although a rarely fervent and ecstatic songster, our
little friend is also a fitful and uncertain one. You may wait for hours
near his retreat, even in early morning, or late afternoon, without
hearing a note. But when the inspiration comes he floods the woods with
music, one song often following another so quickly that there is scarce
a pause for breath between. In this manner I have known him to sing for
fully twenty minutes, although ordinarily the entire performance
occupies less than half that time. Such outbursts may occur at almost
any hour, even at noontide, and I have heard them in the gloomiest
weather, when the woods were shrouded in mist and rain.
Several times the writer has seen males when the inspiration had not
quite come to them; the bird would throw back its head but utter only
one or two opening notes of his song.
The call note is a chip, which Brewster calls "a soft _tchip_
indistinguishable from that of _Parula americana_." But Murray (1935)
writes that it is "more throaty and full-bodied than that of most
Warblers." Brooks and Legg (1942) describe it as "clear, penetrating
chirps, having (to our ears) much the same quality as do the chirps of
the Mourning Warbler. They are not quite so loud, but have a more
ringing quality than those of the Hooded Warbler."
_Field marks._--[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Swainson's warbler is a plainly colored
bird, with no conspicuous field marks. It is brownish olive above and
whitish below, with no white in either wings or tail; there is a whitish
line over the eye and a dusky streak through it; but the bill is long
and sharply pointed.]
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Southeastern United States to southern Mexico.
_Breeding range._--Until about 1935 Swainson's warbler was considered to
be confined in summer to the southern canebrakes and coastal marshes. It
is now known to breed =north= to extreme southern Illinois, probably
(seen in breeding season to Olive Branch, Duquoin, and Mount Carmel);
southeastern Kentucky (Big Black Mountain); central to northern West
Virginia (Charleston, Mount Lookout, Sutton, and Buzzard Rocks,
Monongalia County); and southeastern Maryland (Pocomoke River Swamp).
=East= to eastern Maryland (Pocomoke River Swamp); eastern Virginia
(Warwick County and Dismal Swamp); eastern North Carolina (New Bern,
Lake Ellis, and Red Springs); eastern South Carolina (Summerton,
Charleston, and Yemassee); eastern Georgia (Savannah and Okefinokee
Swamp); and northeastern Florida (Jacksonville). =South= to northern
Florida (Jacksonville, Oldtown, Whitfield, and Pensacola) and southern
Louisiana (Mandeville, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge). =West= to eastern
Louisiana (Baton Rouge, Bayou Sara, and Jena); central Arkansas (Camden
and Conway); extreme northeastern Oklahoma (Copan); and central Missouri
(Concordia).
Within this large breeding area are two almost discontinuous breeding
ranges: the coastal and swamp range long considered the only home of the
species; and the more recently discovered mountain home along the slopes
of the Allegheny Mountains from northern West Virginia nearly to the
Georgia line where it has been found to an altitude of nearly 3,000
feet.
_Winter range._--The winter home of the Swainson's warbler is very
imperfectly known from a dozen or more specimens, most of which are from
Jamaica where it has been listed as a rare winter resident. There are
records also from the Swan Islands (March 1); Santa Lucia, Quintana Roo;
Pacaytain, Campeche; and the city of Veracruz. Two specimens have been
taken near Habana, Cuba; one on September 25, the other in April; and
one near Guantánamo on January 18, 1914.
_Migration._--Dates of spring departure are: Jamaica, April 8.
Cuba--Habana, April 14.
Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida--St. Petersburg, March 25.
Alabama--Autaugaville, April 3. Georgia--Savannah, March 25.
South Carolina, April 1. Louisiana--New Orleans, March 30.
Mississippi--Biloxi, March 31. Tennessee--Memphis, April 20.
Texas--Point Bolivar, April 17.
Late dates of fall departure are: Texas--Kemah, September 27.
Tennessee--Sulphur Springs, September 9. Mississippi--Gulfport, October
6. South Carolina--Charleston, October 10. Georgia--Savannah, October
18. Alabama--Greensboro, September 6. Florida--Pensacola, October 2;
Sombrero Key (4 struck lighthouse November 10).
Dates of fall arrival are: Tamaulipas--Matamoros, August 29. Jamaica,
October 1.