Ohio--Austinburg, September 23. Kentucky--Middlesboro, September 27.
Tennessee--Athens, October 5. Mississippi--Biloxi, October 11.
Louisiana--Monroe, September 30. New York--Balston, September 23.
Pennsylvania--Atglen, October 10. District of Columbia--Washington,
September 13. West Virginia--Bluefield, September 19. Virginia--Salem,
October 24. North Carolina--Andrews, October 11; Raleigh, November 3.
South Carolina--Charleston, October 11. Georgia--Atlanta, October 10.
Florida--Fernandina, October 3.
_Casual records._--A specimen was collected in Bermuda on October 4,
1899. An individual was present at Wood Pond near Jackson, Somerset
County, Maine, September 1 to 12, 1935; and one was reported seen at
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, on October 15, 1943, following a small hurricane.
_Egg dates._--Connecticut: 7 records, May 27 to June 29.
New Jersey: 4 records, May 21 to 30.
Pennsylvania: 75 records, May 15 to June 30: 45 records, May 24 to June
5, indicating the height of the season (Harris).
VERMIVORA CHRYSOPTERA (Linnaeus)
GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER
CONTRIBUTED BY WINSOR MARRETT TYLER
PLATES 10, 11
HABITS
The golden-winged warbler is one of the daintiest among this group of
gay-colored little birds. Its plumage is immaculate white below and
delicate pearl-gray on the upper parts, the crown and wings sparkle with
golden yellow, and on the throat and cheeks is a broad splash of jet
black.
It is only within comparatively recent years that we have become well
acquainted with the goldenwing: the older ornithologists, Wilson,
Audubon, and Nuttall, knew it only as a rather uncommon migrant,
drifting through from the south, and they had no idea where it bred. At
a much later date J. A. Allen (1870) says of it: "This beautiful warbler
has been taken, so far as I can learn, but few times in the western part
of the State; it seems to be more common in the eastern, where it
breeds." He cites the first record of the finding of a nest in the State
in 1869. There is, however, an earlier record of its nesting. Dr. Brewer
(1874) states: "Dr. Samuel Cabot was the first naturalist to meet with
the nest and eggs of this bird. This was in May, 1837, in Greenbrier
County, Va."
William Brewster (1906), speaking of the bird in 1874, when he first
found it in eastern Massachusetts, says: "If the species inhabited any
part of the Cambridge Region before the year just mentioned, it was
overlooked by several keen and diligent collectors, among whom may be
mentioned Mr. H. W. Henshaw and Mr. Ruthven Deane." Since that time the
bird has increased in numbers here until at present it is common in
suitable localities.
_Spring._--The goldenwing appears in eastern Massachusetts about the
middle of May, or sometimes a little earlier, at the time when many of
the resident warblers are arriving on their breeding-grounds. At this
season the bright green leaves are beginning to open in the thickets and
trees on the borders of woodlands where the goldenwing finds its food;
and under the trees in the wooded swamps where the bird will build its
nest, fresh new growth--skunkcabbage, ferns, and a host of spring
plants--is pushing through the dead leaves, spreading a green carpet on
the forest floor. But even thus early in the year, when the trees are
nearly bare, it is not easy to see as it feeds high up in the trees, far
out near the tips of the branches. Indeed, but for its queer little
song, we should rarely suspect that it had come back to its summer home.
_Nesting._--The golden-winged warbler builds its nest on the ground,
generally raised somewhat by a substratum of dead leaves. The nest is
supported by stalks of herbs--often goldenrod or meadow rue--or by fern
fronds, or it may be hidden deep in a clump of grass, or it may lean
against the base of a small shrub or tree with grass all about it. The
leaves above the nest develop as the season advances and soon completely
conceal it, and the plants, by their growth, may raise the nest a little
above the ground. The cup of the nest is made chiefly of long strands of
dry grass and narrow strips of grapevine bark, with a few hairs in the
lining. This fine, flexible material is pressed down on the inside by
the weight of the incubating bird and the nestlings, becoming smooth and
firm like a mat, whereas on the outside wall the long grass blades and
fibrous vegetable shreds are left free and, protruding loosely in all
directions for some distance from the cup, produce a disorderly, unkempt
appearance, like a little loose handful of fine hay.
Edward H. Forbush (1929) quotes an account of the goldenwing by Horace
O. Green who has had an extensive experience with the species and who
gives the following interesting details of the construction of the nest:
The nest of the Golden-wing usually has a bottom layer of coarse dead
leaves on which is placed a ring of large dry leaves, arranged with the
points of the leaves downward, so that the leaf stems stick up
noticeably around the edges of the nest proper, which is built within
and upon this circular mass of leaves, and is made of rather wide strips
of coarse grass or rushes, and usually has considerable grape vine bark
interwoven in it. The nest lining is coarse and rough, sometimes the
eggs being laid on the rough grape vine bark, and in some nests other
coarse fibers are used. A very characteristic feature of the nest lining
is fine shreds of light reddish-brown vegetable fiber, which at first
glance might easily be mistaken for dry needles from the pitch pine--but
careful examination shows it to be the inner layers of the bark from the
grape vines. The nest is very bulky for the size of the bird and Is
rather loosely put together by crossing the materials diagonally, so
that it slightly resembles a rather coarse basket-work. I never saw a
nest of this species which had a soft lining, such as many other
warblers use--the eggs are apparently always deposited on rough
material.
The general color of the nest is very dark, especially just after a
rain, when the materials of which it is composed look almost black--this
being one thing which helps to distinguish these nests from those of the
Maryland Yellow-throat, which generally builds a much lighter colored
nest, lined with fine grass, and sometimes with horse hair. Another
small point of difference which is noticeable on close examination is
that the lining in the Yellow-throat's nest is usually of a much finer
and lighter colored material, and appears to be woven in horizontally,
or at least to show some traces of such a design, especially around the
upper edge--while the Golden-wing closely adheres to the diagonal
criss-cross pattern with the loose ends of the nesting materials
sticking up at an angle above the rim of the nest cavity.
Mr. Green describes the surroundings of the nest thus:
For their summer home these birds prefer the border of deciduous woods,
where tall trees give plenty of shade, to an adjacent clearing with a
growth of briers, bushes and grass, and the nest is usually placed just
outside the line of the forest proper, but within the shade of the
trees. A meadow wholly surrounded by woods is frequently selected. The
ideal place to search for a nest of the species is in one of those
woodland meadows, which has a clear brook flowing through it, with
briers, tussocks of grass and a fresh growth of goldenrod scattered
around in profusion, with birch trees and wild grape vines growing near
the edges where the meadow meets higher ground--and all this bordered by
tall oak, chestnut and maple trees which furnish an abundance of shade
to the vegetation of the meadow itself.
J. Warren Jacobs (1904) describes the nest much as above and adds: "The
opening is not straight down, but slightly tilted, the jaggy leaf-stems
and bark sometimes reaching two or three inches above the rim of the
nest proper. As incubation advances, the rough rim on the lower edge of
the nest becomes broken down, and by the time the young birds are ready
to leave, this part of their home is worn smooth by the attendant
parents."
He gives the measurements of 17 nests as follows: "Outside 3.6 to 5.0
inches in diameter, and 3.0 to 5.0 inches in depth; and on the inside,
from 1.7 to 2.5 inches in diameter by 1.3 to 2.5 inches deep." These
measurements agree very closely with the records of several other
observers. Jacobs continues: "Seemingly before the birds have had time
to complete their nest, the female begins the deposition of the eggs.
Generally, where I had opportunity to watch the nests daily, or at
intervals between the beginning and completion of the set, the eggs were
laid on consecutive days, but in two or three instances it was noticed
that the laying missed a day."
_Eggs._--The set for the golden-winged warbler may consist of anywhere
from 4 to 7 eggs; 5 is perhaps the commonest number, but 4 is a common
number, and the larger numbers are increasingly rare. The eggs are ovate
or short ovate, and have only a slight luster. They are white or creamy
white, with a wide variety of markings in "auburn," "argus brown," "Mars
brown," "hazel," "Hay's brown," "liver brown," and "burnt umber," with
underlying speckles or spots of "light brownish drab" and "light
vinaceous drab." There is, also, much variation in the amount of
markings, some being very sparingly speckled and others are quite
heavily marked, with some of the spots assuming the proportions of
blotches. Occasionally small hairline scrawls, or scattered spots, of
brown so dark as to appear almost black, are found. The markings are
usually denser toward the large end. The measurements of 50 eggs average
16.7 by 13.0 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure
=18.6= by 13.0, 16.8 by =13.7=, =15.5= by 12.5, and 15.9 by =12.3=
millimeters (Harris).
_Young._--Jacobs (1904) states that the incubation period is 10 days and
that the young birds are able to leave the nest 10 days after hatching.
In a nest which Maunsell S. Crosby (1912) watched closely, the eggs
hatched on June 1 and the young flew on June 10.
The fledglings are delicate little birds, brownish olive on the back,
washed with yellow below, and have two widely separated yellow wing
bars. They have astonishingly long legs and soon become very active,
fluttering about in the shrubbery and clinging to the branches. Walter
Faxon (1911) in speaking of them gives this lively picture which could
well be applied to them soon after leaving the nest: "In appearance and
habit they were grotesque little fellows, clinging with their
disproportionately long legs to the low herbage, like peeping Hylas in
the springtime clinging to the grasses and weeds above the surface of
the water. The little thread-like natal plumes still waving from the
tips of their crown feathers enhanced the oddity of their appearance."
Mr. Faxon, to be exact, is speaking here of some young birds of mixed
parentage, but his words apply equally well to the behavior and
appearance of the young of _chrysoptera_ which he and I watched year
after year together. Both parents are very attentive to their young
brood, bringing to them food which they find both on low plant growth
and high in the overshadowing branches.
The fledglings call to their parents with a very characteristic note, a
little quavering, high, fine chirp which I find written in my journal
_crrr_ and _tzzz_. It suggests somewhat a note of young chipping
sparrows, but is less sharp and crisp. In form it also resembles the
call of the young cowbird, but again it is gentler and weaker in tone.
Mr. Faxon (1911) refers to it as the "cricket note." The young birds
acquire their first winter plumage about a month after they leave the
nest, and hence to the eye are indistinguishable from their parents, but
as they still continue to use the call of their babyhood, they may be
recognized as immature birds even when they are feeding high up in the
trees.
_Plumages._--[AUTHOR'S NOTE: I can find no description of the natal
down. Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage, in which the
sexes are practically alike, as "above, grayish or brownish olive-green.
Wings and tail slate-black edged chiefly with bluish plumbeous gray, the
coverts and tertiaries with olive-green. Below, pale olive-yellow, the
throat dusky. Transocular streak dusky. * * *
"First winter plumage acquired by a partial postjuvenal moult, beginning
early in July, which involves the body plumage and wing coverts, but not
the rest of the wings nor the tail, young and old becoming practically
indistinguishable." He describes the young male in this plumage as--
above, plumbeous gray veiled with olive-green edgings; the crown bright
lemon-yellow veiled posteriorly only. Below, grayish white, with yellow
edgings here and there, the chin, jugulum, lores and auriculars
jet-black veiled slightly with pale buff. Broad submalar stripes joining
at angle of the chin, and superciliary lines white. Outer half of median
and greater coverts bright lemon yellow forming an almost continuous
wing patch, lesser coverts plumbeous gray, edged with olive-green.
First nuptial plumage acquired by wear, through which the buff edgings
of the black areas, the olive edgings of the back and the yellow edgings
below are almost completely lost, the plumage becoming clear gray,
white, yellow and black.
Of the female, he says: "In first winter and other plumages olive-gray,
dusky on the lores and auriculars, replaces the black areas of the male,
and olive-yellow marks the crown. Above, the plumage is greenish; the
submalar stripes are grayish." Subsequent plumages are acquired by a
complete postnuptial molt in late June and July and by wear in early
spring.]
_Food._--Little exact information has been gathered regarding the food
of the goldenwing. The insects it feeds on are mainly so small that it
is generally impossible to identify them. Jacobs (1904) states: "Once I
saw a female carry a small brownish butterfly to her young; and several
times I have discovered the birds taking small smooth green worms--such
as strip the leaves of their green coat, leaving the ribbed skeleton--to
their nestlings. The legs of a spider protruded from a bird's bill as
she approached her nest."
The little pale green larva which Jacobs mentions impresses us as the
chief article of food, as we watch the birds. It is 1/2 to 3/4 inch long
and appears to have a smooth, hairless skin. These larvae are obtained,
I believe, chiefly in the large trees.
In the following note A. L. Nelson (1933) furnishes an interesting
detail of the bird's diet:
The following observation on the food habits of a Golden-winged Warbler
(_Vermivora chrysoptera_), made in the vicinity of Port Tobacco (Charles
Co.), Maryland on May 6, 1933, seems worthy of mention, inasmuch as
little specific information on the dietary habits of this species has
been recorded. About 1:30 we observed a single individual of this
species actively feeding in a low shrubbery growth of pawpaw (_Asimina
triloba_), which was in full bloom at this date. Closer observation
revealed that the bird was probing about inside the flowers, and
apparently was getting some kind of larvae. Examination of the
flowers revealed that they were infested with a small, brown-headed
lepidopterous larva. Dissection of a large number of flowers indicated
that the infestation was high, the majority of flowers having one larva,
although in many cases two were present. Several infested flowers were
collected for the purpose of rearing the insects to the adult stage
under laboratory conditions. The cycle was completed without difficulty,
the adults emerging within twelve days. These were examined by Dr. Carl
Heinrich of the U. S. National Museum and found to be _Talponia
plummeriana_ Busck, a small brightly colored Tortricid, the only known
food plant of which is the pawpaw.
_Behavior._--A favorite locality for the golden-winged warbler to spend
the summer in eastern Massachusetts may be the border of a wooded swamp
where tall elm and maple trees shade a dense undergrowth of ferns and
other moisture-loving plants, a swamp which runs out toward drier ground
where abounds a growth of gray birches or a tangle of raspberry canes,
wild grapevines, and goldenrod. Such a spot furnishes countless
situations for hiding the nest in the thick vegetation growing in the
half-wet half-dry ground, and also a source of food near at hand in the
high branches of the trees. Much the same conditions exist along the
course of a brook winding through second growth, or near orchards or old
neglected weedy pastures.
Sometimes, as William Brewster (1906) points out, the bird may frequent
"dry hillsides covered with a young sprout growth of oak, hickory or
maple."
In a more southern latitude the habitat may be quite different. Maurice
Brooks (1940), speaking of the bird in the central Allegheny Mountain
region, says: "Shunning the swamps which it frequents in other portions
of its range, it is highly characteristic of the 'chestnut sprout'
association, where the males choose dead chestnuts for perches from
which to sing. It is also fairly common in the pitch and scrub pine
regions on the hills just back of the Ohio river, but becomes less
common toward the eastern portion of the territory with which this
paper deals. It ascends to at least 4,000 feet in Giles Co., Va."
We can watch the little golden-winged warblers best, and often at very
short range, when they are feeding their fledglings recently from the
nest. The little birds sit quietly in the shrubbery near the ground,
waiting for their parents. We can find them easily, for they frequently
utter their characteristic "cricket note," and we can approach them
closely, for they scarcely heed us. The parents, too, when they are
feeding the young birds, pay little attention to us and come fearlessly
to them even when we stand near. At such times they work in a seeming
panic of hurry, flying about in the low growth searching for food, or
visiting the smallest branches high up in the trees, where they cling to
the terminal twigs, hanging like chickadees as they probe among the
curled up leaves (insect nests) for food hidden there, then back to the
waiting young, seemingly in continuous motion and without the slightest
pause in their nervous activity. At this season when the parents are
busy with the young birds, about the third week in June in eastern
Massachusetts, they are so occupied in searching for food that the male
rarely sings.
In two particulars--their tameness, or indifference to our presence, and
the almost complete cessation of singing thus early in the season--the
goldenwing differs from the other common birds which breed in much the
same regions, the chestnut-sided warbler, redstart, northern
yellow-throat, ovenbird, and veery.
Jacobs (1904) speaks of the anxiety of the parent birds if the nest is
disturbed when the nestlings are nearly ready to fly. He says: "If the
hand is placed near the nest at this period of their growth, they will
scramble out and flutter away, all giving vent to their chipping note,
which brings down upon the intruder the wrath of both old birds, who fly
close to his face, snapping their beaks and chipping loudly; then down
upon the ground they fall and feign the broken wing act as long as one
of the young continues to chirp."
_Voice._--The song of the golden-winged warbler is an inconspicuous
little buzzing sound which one might pass by unnoticed, or hearing it
for the first time, might ascribe it to a mechanical sound made by some
insect, not suspecting it to be the song of a bird. Only after we have
become thoroughly familiar with the song do we grasp its definite
character, so that we can pick it out even when we hear it in the
distance among a medley of other voices. In this particular it resembles
the songs of Henslow's and the grasshopper sparrows, which are scarcely
audible, and pass unregarded until well known.
The male goldenwing sings generally from a high perch, often from a
branch bare of leaves; hence, once we find him, we can see him plainly.
When he sings he throws his head back so far that his bill points almost
to the zenith, and sings with it widely open, as if he were pouring out
a great volume of sound. The bird sings freely from his arrival in
spring until mid-June, about a month, often devoting himself to long
periods of singing from the same perch. Later in the season, after the
young have hatched, he sings only fitfully.
The song most often heard is composed of four notes, the first
prolonged, and followed, after an almost imperceptible pause, by three
shorter notes on a lower pitch. All four notes are delivered in a
leisurely manner, drawling in tempo, and might be written _zeee,
zer-zer-zer_. The first note takes up about half the time of the song.
The quality of the voice is buzzing, and when heard near at hand,
slightly rasping, with a lisping suggestion throughout. The song carries
well; curiously it seems little louder when heard at close range, but
from a distance it sounds smoother and, losing much of the buzzing
quality, suggests a long drawn out _thth_, _th-th-th_, like a whispering
wind. Occasionally there may be four short notes, and sometimes only two
following the long initial note.
Like some of the other warblers, notably the black-and-white,
chestnut-sided, and black-throated green, the goldenwing sings two
distinct songs. In the second form the buzzing tone is nearly or wholly
absent. It begins with about half a dozen short notes given in a quick
series on the same pitch, and ends with one long note on a higher key,
_th-th-th-th-th-th-theee_.
I have heard two males singing antiphonally, the responses repeated with
perfect regularity for several minutes.
Of the minor notes the commonest is a short, slightly roughened _dz_.
When much excited both adults use a chattering _tchu-tchu-tchu_,
suggesting in manner of delivery the song of the short-billed marsh
wren, although it is higher pitched and not so loud.
Francis H. Allen (MS.) mentions two other songs, only slightly different
from the above. One goes something like "_tick tick chick chick chick
chick shree_. The _shree_ is a beady note resembling one of the
cedar waxwing's familiar notes." Another song he writes as
"_see-see-see-see-see-see-see-see-see-dz'-dsee_."
_Field marks._--The golden-winged warbler is easy to recognize; it is
the only warbler that combines a blue-gray back and yellow in the wing.
In the two other common warblers with a black throat, the black-throated
blue and the black-throated green, the black runs down the sides a
little way so that the white of the breast comes up in a peak in the
middle of the breast, whereas in the goldenwing the line of division
between the black and white runs straight across. From directly below,
the goldenwing appears wholly black and white, and from this angle is
marked like a chickadee, but a glance at its long, needle-sharp bill
proclaims it a warbler of the genus _Vermivora_.
_Enemies._--Prowling mammals, the enemies of ground-nesting birds, and
predatory hawks are a danger to the bird. In its relation to the
cowbird, Friedmann (1929) reports the bird as "a very uncommon victim."
He says: "I have only six definite records, but the species is listed
as a molothrine victim by Bendire and by Short. As many as four eggs
of the Cowbird have been found in a single nest of this Warbler."
_Fall_ and _winter_.--We lose sight of the goldenwing early in the
season. Silent amid the dense foliage of July and August, the bird is
rarely seen. During the years between 1907 and 1920, when I kept a daily
record of birds seen, I met it only four times in August and only twice
in September, the latest September 12.