bird in its winter quarters: "I am familiar with the golden-winged
warbler in its winter home only in Costa Rica. In this country it
winters on the Caribbean slope from the lowlands up to about 6,000 feet
above sea-level, and on the Pacific slope at least in the region between
2,000 and 4,000 feet. While it appears to be nowhere abundant, I found
it most numerous at Vara Blanca, on the northern slope of the Cordillera
Central at an elevation of about 5,500 feet. Here on one day--November
2, 1937--I saw three individuals, the greatest number I have ever
recorded. This is a region of dense vegetation, subject to much
cloudiness and long-continued, often violent rainstorms--one of the
wettest districts of all Central America. Most of the published records
are from this generally wet side of the country. Yet the bird winters
sparingly in the Basin of El General on the Pacific slope, which during
the first 3 months of the year may be nearly rainless. While in the
Tropics, it appears never to associate with others of its own kind, but
at times may roam about with mixed flocks of other small birds. It may
forage among low, fairly dense, second-growth thickets, or among the
tangled vegetation at the forest's edge, or at times in the forest
itself, or in groves of tall trees, high above the ground. It
investigates the curled dead leaves caught up among the branches, and
devours such small creatures as it finds lurking in their folds. I have
not heard it sing while in its winter home.
"In Costa Rica, it appears to arrive late and to depart early, not
having been recorded before September 15, nor later than April 9. Early
dates of fall arrival are: Costa Rica--San José (Cherrie), September 15
and October 2; La Hondura (Carriker), September 21; Basin of El General,
October 18, 1936; Vara Blanca, October 5, 1937.
"Late dates of spring departure are: Costa Rica--Basin of El General,
April 8, 1936, April 7, 1937, March 30, 1939, and April 9, 1943; Vara
Blanca, April 9, 1938; Guápiles (Carriker), March 30."
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Eastern United States to northwestern South America.
_Breeding range._--The golden-winged warbler breeds =north= to central
Minnesota (Detroit Lakes, Onamia, and Cambridge); central Wisconsin (St.
Croix Falls, New London, and Shiocton); northern peninsula or Michigan
(McMillan and Mackinac Island); southern Michigan (Kalamazoo, Locke, and
Detroit); southern Ontario (London and Port Rowan, has occurred north to
Collingwood and Bowmanville); central New York (Medina, Rochester, and
Waterford); central Vermont (Rutland), and northern Massachusetts
(Winchendon, Newton, and Lynn). It has been found in summer and may
possibly breed in southern New Hampshire (Concord and Durham); and
southwestern Maine (Emery Mills and Sandford). =East= to eastern
Massachusetts (Lynn, Boston, and Rehoboth); southern Connecticut (New
Haven and Bridgeport); northern New Jersey (Morristown); central
Pennsylvania (near State College); and south through the mountains to
western North Carolina (Weaverville, Waynesville, and Highlands);
northwestern South Carolina (Caesars Head and Highlow Gap); and northern
Georgia (Young Harris, Margret, and Oglethorpe Mountain). =South= to
northern Georgia (Oglethorpe Mountain and Rising Faun); central
Tennessee (Maryland); northern Ohio (Steuben, Port Clinton, and
Wauseon); northern Indiana (Waterloo); and northern Illinois
(Riverside). =West= to northern Illinois (Riverside); central and
western Wisconsin (Baraboo Bluffs and Durand); and central Minnesota
(Minneapolis, Elk River, and Detroit Lakes). It has been noted in
summer, or in migration, west to St. Louis, Mo.; Lake Quivira and
Lawrence, Kans.; and Omaha, Nebr.
_Winter range._--In winter the golden-winged warbler is found =north= to
central Guatemala (Cobán); and northern Honduras (Lancetilla); casually
or in migration to the Yucatán Peninsula (Campeche and Mérida). =East=
to Honduras (Lancetilla); eastern Nicaragua (Escondido River); Costa
Rica (Guápiles and Guayabo); central Panamá (Lion Hill, Canal Zone); and
central Colombia (Santa Marta region, Bogotá, and Villavicencio); rare
or accidental in western Venezuela (Mérida). =South= to central Colombia
(Villavicencio and El Eden). =West= to northwestern Colombia (El Eden,
Medellín, and Antioquia); western Panamá (Chiriquí); Costa Rica (El
General and Nicoya); and central Guatemala (Cobán).
_Migration._--Late dates of spring departure are: Colombia--Fusagasugá,
March 24. Panamá--Volcán de Chiriquí, April 16. Costa Rica--Vara Blanca,
April 9. Florida--Pensacola, April 22. Alabama--Hollins, May 7.
Georgia--Athens, May 13. South Carolina--Clemson College, May 3. North
Carolina--Raleigh, May 7. District of Columbia--Washington, May 20.
Mississippi--Gulfport, April 18. Missouri--St. Louis, May 25.
Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida--Pensacola, April 5.
Alabama--Barachias, April 22. Georgia--Milledgeville, April 12. South
Carolina--Clemson College, April 21. North Carolina--Asheville, April
23. Virginia--Lynchburg, April 19. West Virginia--Bluefield, April 19.
District of Columbia--Washington, April 24. Pennsylvania--Beaver, April
24. New York--Rochester, April 29. Massachusetts--Belmont, April 28.
Louisiana--Grand Isle, April 6. Mississippi--Gulfport, April 10.
Tennessee--Memphis, April 12. Illinois--Olney, April 17. Indiana--Sedan,
April 27. Michigan--Plymouth, April 30. Ohio--Youngstown, April 27.
Ontario--London, April 30. Missouri--St. Louis, April 18. Iowa--Keokuk,
April 27. Wisconsin--Sheboygan, April 30. Minnesota--Minneapolis, April
30. The golden-winged warbler ranges west to central Iowa in migration,
and in the lower Mississippi Valley is much less abundant in spring than
in fall.
Late dates of fall departure are: Minnesota--Minneapolis, September 30.
Wisconsin--Madison, October 11. Ontario--Point Pelee, September 2.
Ohio--Ellsworth Station, September 23. Michigan--Ann Arbor, October 6.
Indiana--Lyons, September 27. Illinois--Chicago, October 7.
Missouri--La Grange, September 30. Kentucky--Versailles, September 25.
Tennessee--Athens, September 29. Louisiana--New Orleans, September 25.
Mississippi--Gulfport, October 8. Massachusetts--Danvers, September 7.
New York--Brooklyn, October 2. Pennsylvania--Jeffersonville, October 2.
District of Columbia--Washington, September 14. West Virginia--French
Creek, September 15. North Carolina--Piney Creek, October 3. South
Carolina--Chester, September 22. Georgia--Atlanta, October 9.
Alabama--Greensboro, October 4.
Early dates of fall arrival are: Mississippi--Bay St. Louis, July 23.
District of Columbia--Washington, August 8. Virginia--Naruna, August 23.
North Carolina--Highlands, August 15. South Carolina--Charleston, August
20. Georgia--Athens, August 14. Alabama--Greensboro, August 11.
Florida--Pensacola, August 14. Costa Rica--San José, September 15.
Colombia--Bonda, September 6.
_Casual record._--One reported seen at Fort Thorn, N. Mex., in April
1854 by Dr. Joseph Henry. Since no specimen was taken this remains on
the hypothetical list for the State.
_Egg dates._--Massachusetts: 14 records, May 27 to June 24; 9 records,
May 30 to June 7, indicating the height of the season.
Michigan: 33 records, May 13 to June 10; 18 records, May 17 to 30.
New York: 6 records, June 3 to 24.
New Jersey: 7 records, May 25 to June 5 (Harris).
VERMIVORA PINUS (Linnaeus)
BLUE-WINGED WARBLER
PLATES 12, 13
HABITS
Bagg and Eliot (1937) write: "According to Wilson, this species was
discovered by William Bartram, who gave it the descriptive name _Parus
aureus alis caeruleis_ (Blue-winged Golden Tit), and sent a specimen to
'Mr. Edwards' by whom it was drawn and etched. Edwards suspected its
identity with the Pine Creeper of Catesby: hence its present
inappropriate name, _pinus_." As there are other warblers whose wings
are more distinctly blue, those of this warbler being only bluish gray,
the old familiar name, blue-winged yellow warbler, which stood for
many years, seems more appropriate and more truly descriptive.
The blue-winged warbler is a bird of the so-called Carolinian Life Zone,
with a rather restricted breeding range in the Central States and not
quite reaching our northern borders. Its center of abundance in the
breeding season seems to be in southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
northern Kentucky, northern Missouri, and southern Iowa. Its range
extends northeastward to New Jersey, southeastern New York, and southern
Connecticut. It is fairly common in the latter State, and I know of one
small colony in eastern Rhode Island within a mile or two of the
Massachusetts line. North of these points in New England it occurs only
as a straggler or casual breeder. In southern New England I have found
it in rather open situations, in neglected pastures where there is low
shrubbery, brier patches, and bushy thickets around the edges; or in
similar growth along the borders of woods, usually on dry uplands; and
sometimes in the rank growth of tall grasses and weeds near the borders
of swamps or streams.
Frank L. Burns wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) of its haunts in
Pennsylvania: "This species is here an inhabitant of the rather open
swampy thickets, upland clearings, neglected pastures and fence rows,
where the grass and weeds have not been choked out by a too thick growth
of briers, bushes, saplings and vines." Dr. Lawrence H. Wilkinshaw tells
me that, in southern Michigan, "this species loves deep swampy woods,
where the golden-winged warbler and cerulean warbler are found." This is
quite different from the haunts in which we find it in the east, though
Dr. Chapman (1907) says: "It is not, as a rule, a deep woods warbler,
though I have found it nesting in heavy forest, but prefers rather,
bordering second growths, with weedy openings, from which it may follow
lines or patches of trees to haunts some distance from the woods."
_Spring._--From its winter home in Central America the blue-winged
warbler seems to migrate from Yucatán straight across the Gulf of Mexico
to the Gulf States and along the eastern coast of Texas to Louisiana. It
is apparently very rare anywhere in Florida or the Keys, and along the
Atlantic coast, where it is comparatively rare, it is found at low
elevations. It migrates northward mainly west of the Alleghenies,
seeming to avoid the mountains; the main body of the species seems to
travel through the Mississippi Valley to the centers of abundance in the
central States. Perhaps the birds that settle in southern New York and
New England travel up the Ohio River, drifting through Pennsylvania and
New Jersey to their destination. According to Milton B. Trautman (1940)
this warbler seems to be a rare or uncommon spring migrant in central
Ohio, and "in some migrations only 2 individuals were noted" at Buckeye
Lake; this adds support to the theory that the birds follow the river
along the southern border of the State.
_Nesting._--Although Wilson (1831) gave a very good description of the
nest of the blue-winged yellow warbler, very little was known of its
nesting in southern New England prior to about 1880, when nests were
found in southern Connecticut, where it is now known to be a fairly
common breeder. I found two nests near West Haven, Conn., on June 8,
1910; both were close to the ground but not quite on it; one was in a
clump of blackberry vines, weeds, and grasses, in a swampy corner of a
scrubby lot; the other was in a bunch of grass and rank weeds on some
sprout land among some mixed bushes. Again, on June 1, 1934, I
photographed (pl. 12) a nest near Hadlyme, Conn., on the edge of an
open, neglected field and close to the border of some young woods. It
was built among and attached to the upright stems of a clump of tall
goldenrod. These were all typical of the nests described below.
Massachusetts nests are very rare; Forbush (1929) gives but two nesting
records for this State, and only one for Rhode Island, though I am
confident that its breeds regularly in the latter State. Horace W.
Wright (1909b) gives a very full account of a nest found near Sudbury,
Mass., in some mixed woods, placed between the exposed roots of a
decayed stump and partially concealed by a growth of ferns.
T. E. McMullen has sent me the data for several Pennsylvania nests,
three in old fields, one under a cherry sprout, one under a small bush,
and one 6 inches up in a tussock of goldenrod; another was under a birch
sprout along the edge of an old woods road.
The nest of the blue-winged warbler is unique and quite distinctive,
often shaped like an inverted cone, usually very narrow and very deep
and supported by a firm cup of strong, dead leaves. I cannot improve on
the excellent description given to Dr. Chapman (1907) by Frank L. Burns
as follows:
Outwardly composed of the broad blades of a coarse grass, the dead
leaves of the maple, beech, chestnut, cherry and oak trees; the leaf
points curving upward and inward forming a deep cuplike nest in which
the bird's head and tail seem almost to meet over her back. Occasionally
grass stems, coarse strips or wild grapevine bark, shreds of corn
fodder, and fragments of beech and wild cherry bark appear in the
make-up. Lined most frequently with wild grapevine bark laid across,
instead of bent around in a circle, shredded finest on top, to which is
added an occasional long black horse-hair or split grass stem, with now
and then a final lining of split grass stems in place of fine bark. The
shape varies in accordance to situation, outwardly a short cornucopia, a
round basket, and once a wall-pocket affair, would best describe the
shapes I have noticed.
_Eggs._--From 4 to 7 eggs may be found in the nest of the blue-winged
warbler; 5 seems to be the commonest number, and sets of 6 are not very
rare. The eggs are ovate, with a tendency to short ovate, and they have
only a slight gloss. The white ground color is finely speckled or
sparingly spotted with "chestnut brown," "mummy brown," and "sayal
brown," with under markings in shades of "drab-gray." Some sets have
three or four eggs that are almost immaculate, with one egg sparingly
spotted; other sets occasionally are prominently spotted with
"drab-gray," "light Quaker drab," and "dark vinaceous-drab," or, less
often, with spots of dark "mummy brown." Usually the majority of the
markings are confined to the large end. The measurements of 50 eggs
average 15.7 by 12.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes
measure =16.8= by =13.0= and =14.2= by =11.6= millimeters (Harris).
_Young._--An egg is laid each day until the set is complete, and
incubation generally begins when the last egg is laid. The period of
incubation is 10 or 11 days, and the young remain in the nest from 8 to
10 days. Mr. Burns gave Dr. Chapman (1907) the following full account of
the nest life:
The task of incubation falls on the female alone. It appears that an
airing is taken in the early morning or a little before midday, and
again in the early evening, though perhaps not regularly every day. I
have not seen the male about the nest with food at this period. The
female will allow a close approach, looking into one's eyes with that
hunted look so common in wild animals, and often flushing without a
protesting note. The period of incubation in the one instance was
exactly ten days.
On June 13, at 6.30 p. m., five young just hatched were blind, naked and
prostrate from chin to sternum. The shells were disposed of immediately,
in what manner I am unable to state; the female was reluctant to vacate.
On June 15, at 2.45 p. m., the young were able to raise their heads
slightly and a fluffy bit of down had appeared about the head, also a
dark stripe along the back bone. The female appeared, accompanied by the
male, and fed the young with small green larvae--such as may be found
on the under-side of oak and chestnut leaves--and then shielded the
callow young from the hot rays of the sun.
On June 16, at 6.30 p. m., when the young were three days old, a downy
puff appeared between the shoulders, wing quills being dark. The
strongest bird had the eyes partly open and the mouth wide open for
food.
On June 18, at 7 p. m., the heads and bodies were no longer
flesh-colored but were well enough covered to appear dark. The eyes were
open. At a _cluck_ from me their mouths flew open. Both parents fed them
with green-colored larvae. When the male rested a moment on a brier
above the nest, the female flew down and drove him away, fed the young,
re-appearing with excrement in her beak, which was carried in an
opposite direction from the regular approach via maple bough and poplar
sapling. The male fed the young from a mouthful of very minute larvae or
eggs, which were gathered from the silken nests in the unfolding leaves
of a nearby poplar; after this (7.30 p. m.) the female covered the young
for the night.
On June 20, at from 6.50 to 7.35 p. m., the young had been seven days in
the nest. They were well feathered and of a yellowish-green cast, the
short tails being tipped with yellow. The parents were more suspicious.
The female came to the maple bough with something in her beak and flew
down to the briers and back again several times before she dropped to
the edge of the nest and fed her young. The male appeared immediately
but swallowed a green grub himself upon discovery of me twenty-five feet
away. The female came again in five minutes with a brownish object in
her bill, but appeared more timid and refused to drop to the nest until
the male set her an example of courage.
On June 21, at 6.12 p. m., the young were fully fledged in green plumage
above and dirty yellow beneath. They showed fear of me for the first
time, eyeing me in the same manner as the parent bird when on the nest.
They were evidently ready to vacate at a moment's notice or hasty
movement on my part. The parents appeared, scolding rapidly. The female
fed the young as soon as I retired to my old stand under a bush, with a
rather large green grub (6.20 p. m.) and flew out to the top of a
blackberry bush, followed immediately by the topmost fledgling. It could
do little more than run. The adults flew to within a yard of my head,
making a great outcry, and in the midst of the excitement the remainder
of the young vacated the nest with feeble _chips_. The male gave his
attention to them, while the female followed me as I beat a hasty
retreat to enable them to collect their little family before dark. Eight
days had elapsed since incubation was completed, and it is not at all
unusual for the young of this species to leave the nest while so tiny
and ragged.
_Plumages._--Dr. Dwight (1900) calls the natal down "mouse-gray," and
describes the juvenal plumage, in which the sexes are alike, as, "entire
body plumage olive-yellow darkest on the back and throat. Wings and tail
slate-gray largely edged with plumbeous gray, the tertiaries and coverts
with olive-yellow; the greater and median coverts tipped with white,
yellow tinged. Rectrices largely white. Lores dusky."
A partial postjuvenal molt begins early in July, involving the contour
plumage and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or the tail.
This molt produces the first winter plumage in which the sexes are very
much alike, the female being duller in color, especially the streak
through the eye, and having less yellow on the crown. Dr. Dwight (1900)
describes the first winter male as "above, bright olive-green,
lemon-yellow on the crown veiled by greenish tips. Below, bright
lemon-yellow, the crissum white or merely tinged with yellow.
Transocular streak black. Wing coverts plumbeous gray, edged with
olive-green, the greater and median tipped with white, yellow tinged,
forming two broad wing-bands."
The birds are now practically adult in plumage. The first and subsequent
nuptial plumages are acquired by wear, which produces little change
beyond removal of the greenish tips. Subsequent winter plumages are
acquired by a complete postnuptial molt each July.
The interesting hybrids between this and the golden-winged warbler are
discussed on pages 3 and 4. Kumlien and Hollister (1903) mention a
probable mating of this with the Nashville warbler.
_Food._--Nothing seems to have been published on the food of the
blue-winged warbler beyond that mentioned above as food given to the
young, which is doubtless eaten by the adults as well. It is apparently
wholly insectivorous, seeking its food near the ground in the weed
patches and underbrush where it lives and among the lower branches of
the trees in its haunts. Probably any small insects that it can find in
such places, as well as their larvae and eggs, including many small
caterpillars, are eaten. Small grasshoppers and spiders are probably
included. Prof. Aughey (1878) observed it catching small locusts in
Nebraska. It is evidently a harmless and a very useful bird in
destroying insects that are injurious to foliage.
_Behavior._--Dr. Chapman (1907) writes: "It is rather deliberate in
movements for a Warbler, and is less of a flutterer than the average
member of the genus _Dendroica_. Some of its motions suggest those of
the tree-inhabiting Vireos, while at times, as the bird hangs downward
from some cocoon it is investigating, one is reminded of a Chickadee."
And he quotes Burns as follows:
Perched inconspicuously near the top and well out on the branchlets of a
tree or sapling, preferably facing an opening, if in a thicket; it is in
itself so minute an object as to be passed unseen by many, more
especially as it is much less active than most of our Warblers. With
body feathers puffed out to a delightful plumpness, except for the
backward sweep of the head while in the act of singing, it remains
motionless for quite a while. When it moves it is with a combination of
nervous haste and deliberation, and its song may be heard from quite
another part of the landscape with no apparent reason for the change.
While it has its favorite song perches, it is quite a wanderer and not
infrequently sings beyond possible hearing of its brooding mate, but
oftener within fifty to two hundred feet of the nest.
_Voice._--Aretas A. Saunders contributes the following study of the
songs of this warbler: "The territory song of the blue-winged warbler
consists of two long, buzz-like notes, the second usually lower in pitch
than the first and rougher in sound, _bzzzzzzz-brrrrrrrr_. The pitch
interval between the two notes varies from one tone to four and a half
tones, but the smaller intervals, one tone and one and a half tones, are
much commoner. The second note is lower in pitch than the first in about
75 percent of my records, and higher in most of the others. In a few
songs the second buzz is a double note, and one may hear both lower and
higher notes from a medium distance, only the lower from a greater
distance, and only the higher when very near the bird.
"The pitch is not high as compared to other warblers, ranging from C´´´
to D´´´´, one tone more than an octave. The territory song commonly
begins on some note from A´´´ to C´´´´. It varies in time from 1-1/5
to 1-4/5 seconds, the first note being either equal to or shorter than
the second. The second note is often twice as long as the first. In some
songs the second note is broken into two notes, and in one record it is
in four short notes, so that the song is essentially like that of the
golden-winged warbler.
"After the birds have been on the breeding grounds for a week or two,
singing of the nesting song begins. This song has the same buzz-like
quality as the other, but it is exceedingly variable, considerably
longer, and hardly ever twice alike. The song often begins with a series
of short notes, like _tsit tsit tsit_, or contains such notes somewhere
in the middle. There are usually long buzzes that change pitch by
slurring upward or downward. On one occasion, I found a bird that sang a
territory song and four different nesting songs. Often the nesting song
is sung in flight. By June this song is heard about as frequently as the
territory song, and in late summer, after the molt, it is the one most
commonly heard.