Valley, near Fairbank, Ariz., and found several nests in a row of
willows along an irrigation ditch. The nests, from 12 to 15 feet above
the ground in slender trees, were not very different from those of the
eastern bird, being made mainly of willow cotton interwoven with fine
strips of inner bark, fine grasses, and plant fibers.
The eggs do not differ greatly from those of the species elsewhere,
though what few I have seen are more faintly and finely speckled. The
measurements of 40 eggs average 16.9 by 12.8 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =18.4= by 13.1, 17.0 by =13.6=, =14.9=
by 12.5, and 17.8 by =11.4= millimeters (Harris).
DENDROICA PETECHIA GUNDLACHI Baird
CUBAN YELLOW WARBLER
HABITS
The Cuban yellow warbler was originally described by Baird (1864) as a
full species but is now regarded as a subspecies of _Dendroica
petechia_. Ridgway (1902) describes it as "similar to _D. p. petechia_,
but duller in color; adult male with upper parts much darker
olive-green, the pileum usually concolor with the back, sometimes
slightly more yellowish, very rarely tinged with orange-ochraceous, and
wing-edgings less purely yellow; adult female usually duller in color
than in _D. p. petechia_, often grayish olive-green, or even largely
gray, above, and dull whitish, merely tinged here and there with yellow,
beneath."
Until recently, its range has been supposed to include only Cuba and
Isle of Pines. Dr. Barbour (1923) says of its habits: "The Mangrove
Canary, as the Cuban Yellow Warbler is called, is abundant wherever
there are heavy high mangroves about the coast. I have found it abundant
in eastern and western Cuba, and on the Isle of Pines as well. Gundlach
reports it nesting in March. I incline to believe that May is more
usual; and then the nest of grass, small feathers and woolly down, is
placed in a fork on some horizontal mangrove limb. The whole life of the
species is passed in the mangrove forests."
Referring to the Isle of Pines, W. E. C. Todd (1916) writes: "This is a
bird of the mangroves, to which it is apparently exclusively confined.
It is accordingly most numerous along the coast and about the islands of
Siguanea Bay, where the mangroves are so constant and pronounced a
feature. Mr. Read has observed it along the Pine River also, but it is
apparently a rare bird in the northern part of the island, judging from
the dearth of records, and, indeed, it cannot be called a common bird in
any locality as yet visited. Two nests were found, both in mangroves
within a few feet of the water, during the third week in April, but as
yet without eggs."
More recently, this warbler has been found breeding on some of the lower
Florida Keys. Earle R. Greene (1942) writes:
While exploring one of the Bay Keys in the Great White Heron National
Wildlife Refuge off Key West, Florida, on June 15, 1941, with Roger Tory
Peterson of the National Audubon Society, a male warbler, in full song,
was located. * * * On June 26, the writer located it again on the same
key, and on the 28th the male, female and nest were found. The last was
in the top part of a red-mangrove tree (_Rhizophora mangle_) and was
composed of seaweed and feathers; it contained one egg, white with
brownish markings chiefly about the larger end. On July 10, the egg was
found broken, apparently jabbed, possibly by a Red-wing nesting nearby.
On July 16, the male bird was collected, and on the 30th the female.
Later (1944) he says: "Since then, a male and female were seen on June
16, 1942, on these same keys, and on July 14, 1942, an adult female was
noted on the same keys. On August 6, 1942, a male and female, as well as
an immature bird, being fed by an adult, were found on Big Mullet Key in
the Key West Refuge, which is several miles from the Bay Keys. A letter
received from Mrs. Frances Hames states that she found one bird, in
song, on one of the Bay Keys on May 30, 1943. I consider it, therefore,
a regular nester on certain keys in that area. Additional investigations
may determine it as a common breeder."
DENDROICA PETECHIA CASTANEICEPS Ridgway
MANGROVE YELLOW WARBLER
HABITS
Along both coasts of Baja California southward from about latitude 27°
N., and along the Pacific coast of Mexico from Sinaloa to Guatemala,
where that curious tree, the red mangrove (_Rhizophora mangle_), bathes
its feet in salt water along the shores of bays, estuaries, and tidal
creeks, this handsome yellow warbler makes its permanent home. The red
mangrove extends its growth on these muddy shores by sending its curving
branches outward and downward to take root again in the mud, thus
forming an almost impenetrable tangle of roots and branches in an
ever-widening band extending outward from the dry land. Its dense, dark
foliage forms a low, gloomy forest of branches in which this well-named
warbler finds a secure retreat and to which it is almost exclusively
confined. It has not always been easy to obtain in these tangles, for
Brewster (1902) says that--
during January, February, and a part of March, 1887, Mr. Frazer
repeatedly visited all the mangrove thickets that he could find near La
Paz, and made every effort to secure a good series of these Warblers,
but he took only eight in all and did not shoot more than a pair in any
one day. He notes the bird as "rare," but adds that "its numbers
Increased slightly in March." It cannot be very numerous here at any
time, for the total area covered by its favorite mangroves is very
limited. Indeed, the place where most of his specimens were obtained
"comprises only about two acres, through which winds a small creek,
fordable at low tide; but at high water everything is submerged up to
the lower branches of the mangroves. I always found the birds working
near the surface of the water on the stems of the mangroves or hopping
about on the mud, but the males resorted to the tops of the bushes to
sing. Their notes are similar in general character to those of the
Yellow Warbler."
W. W. Brown was evidently more successful a little later in the season,
for, in that same locality in May and June, he collected a large series
of these beautiful birds for several American collections, mainly Col.
John E. Thayer's. He wrote to Colonel Thayer (1909):
I found the Mangrove Warbler a rare bird, but my previous experience
with this species in Panamá, the Pearl Islands, and in Yucatan is what
made me successful. I learned its song and alarm note in 1893. The first
morning I went into the mangrove swamps of La Paz I whistled the song of
the Yucatan species and the birds answered me; this is the secret of my
success, for the species is very secretive in its habits. I found it so
difficult to get that I offered fifty cents apiece to the duck hunters
and others, including the local taxidermist, but they all failed to get
it! By covering eight miles of territory I generally managed to get four
or five. Sometimes when I shot one It would fall in the mangroves, with
a tide running fast. Under such conditions it generally took a long time
to find it, and a great deal of cutting with the machete.
Referring to the form found in El Salvador, Dickey and van Rossem (1938)
remark: "To add to the difficulties in the path of the collector, the
brown and yellow plumage of the males blends perfectly with the dead or
dying mangrove leaves which are kept in continual motion by the sea
breeze."
_Nesting._--Brown sent Colonel Thayer (1909) three nests of the mangrove
warbler, only one of which contained a set of three eggs. Of this he
says: "The nest with eggs is made (and the others resemble it very much)
of light green fern down, cobwebs, and light-colored dried grasses, with
a few white feathers plastered on the outside. It is beautifully lined
with feathers. It is not so perfectly shaped or so well made as the
Yellow Warbler's nest."
There are now six beautiful nests of this warbler in the Thayer
collection in Cambridge, all collected by Brown near La Paz on dates
ranging from May 15 to June 2; all were placed in the red mangroves,
either on horizontal branches, mostly near the ends, or in forks; the
heights from the ground or water varied from 2 feet to 10 feet. The
largest and handsomest nest was 10 feet up on a horizontal branch; it is
a very neat, compactly woven cup, made of soft, fine, light buff plant
fibers, mixed with plant down, green moss that looks like down (probably
the "light green fern down" referred to above or _algae_), a few gray
lichens and many whitish flower clusters; it is lined with very fine
fibers, apparently from the mangroves, and plenty of feathers; it
measures externally 3 inches in diameter and 2-1/2 inches in height; the
inner diameter at the top of the in-curved rim is 1-3/4 inches and the
cup is near 2 inches deep. The smallest nest measures only 2-1/4 inches
in outside diameter. The shallowest nest is only 1-1/2 inches high and
1-1/4 deep inside.
These nests are all works of art and quite distinctive; all the
materials are smoothly and compactly felted, being tightly plastered
together, as if glued on when wet. The light color and compactness
suggest certain hummingbirds' nests. Most of the nests seem small for
the size of the birds.
_Eggs._--Three eggs seems to form the usual set for the mangrove
warbler; in the Thayer series there are five sets of three and one set
of two. Ed. N. Harrison (MS.) says that "it seems that one egg is a set
as often as two." Most of the eggs in this series are ovate, but some
are short ovate; they have only a very slight gloss. They are white or
creamy white, speckled, spotted or blotched with shades of "mummy
brown," "bone brown," "Prout's brown," or "clove brown," with undertones
of "light mouse gray," "deep mouse gray," "Quaker drab," or "drab-gray."
The browns are frequently so dark as to appear almost black, but some
eggs are spotted with lighter shades, such as "cinnamon brown" and
"snuff brown." On the more lightly marked types the most prominent
markings are the grays, with only a few scattered brown spots. Often a
loose wreath is formed around the large end, where the spots are usually
concentrated.
The measurements of 32 eggs average 17.9 by 13.4 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =19.5= by 13.2, 17.9 by =14.6=, =17.0=
by 13.2, and 18.3 by =12.9= millimeters (Harris).
_Plumages._--Although I have examined a large series of mangrove
warblers, I have seen no downy young and no summer birds in juvenal
plumage. But Dr. Chapman (1907) describes the young female as "above
grayish olive-green, rump brighter; tail blackish, externally greenish,
webs of all but central narrowly margined with yellow; wings and their
coverts blackish, quills margined, coverts tipped with dull greenish;
below whitish more or less washed or obscurely streaked with yellow, the
under tail-coverts pale yellow."
Young males in the fall are much like adult females, but brighter in
color and often with traces of chestnut on the head. Apparently young
males wear this femalelike plumage all winter; young males in March show
a variable amount of chestnut on the head and throat, and show further
progress toward maturity during April, May, and June, indicating a first
prenuptial molt. A specimen described by Brewster (1902) is apparently
undergoing this molt. "It has the head dull chestnut, very pale and
mixed with whitish on the throat, mottled with greenish on the crown;
the jugulum, sides of the neck and the middle of the breast _white_ with
occasional small patches or single feathers of a pale yellow color and
numerous fine, chestnut-rufous streaks on the breast; the remainder of
the under parts pale primrose yellow mixed with whitish. The back,
wings, and tail are nearly as in the adult female. The upper mandible is
of the usual dusky horn color, but the basal half of the lower mandible
of a pale flesh color. The plumage, generally, has a worn and faded
appearance."
This would seem to indicate that the first prenuptial molt is quite
extensive, and that young birds become nearly adult after their molt.
Adults probably have a complete postnuptial molt sometimes during the
summer, but the following descriptions indicate that the prenuptial molt
of adults is less extensive. Ridgway (1885) describes the type male,
taken December 16, 1882, as follows: "Head rich chestnut, lighter or
more rufous on the throat. Upper parts olive-green, the wings dusky,
with broad greenish yellow edgings; outer webs of rectrices dusky, edged
with yellowish olive-green, the inner webs chiefly primrose-yellow.
Lower parts bright gamboge-yellow, the jugulum and breast with a few
very indistinct and mostly concealed streaks of chestnut-rufous." And of
an adult female, taken December 29, 1882, he says: "Above grayish
olive-green; wings grayish dusky, the feathers edged with olive-grayish;
rectrices dusky, outer webs edged with olive-green, the inner with
primrose yellow. Lower parts dull pale olive-yellowish."
From Dr. Chapman's (1907) descriptions of spring adults it appears that
there is very little seasonal change. Male: "Head all around and throat
reddish chestnut; back yellow olive-green, the rump brighter; inner webs
of all but central tail feathers largely yellow; wings black margined
with yellow; underparts, except throat, rich yellow faintly streaked
with reddish brown." Female: "Above olive green, much darker and greener
than [M]; tail black the two outer feathers with large yellow patches on
the inner web near the tip; wings black margined with greenish yellow;
below uniform pale, dull yellow."
Laurence M. Huey (1927), referring to the bird life of San Ignacio and
Pond Lagoons, on the west coast of Baja California, states that mangrove
warblers were found there--
in isolated pairs and gave evidence of early nesting by their singing
and by the condition of the sex organs of the specimens collected. This
warbler was one of the most interesting species observed. The song of
the male was usually delivered from a hidden position amid the dense
mangroves, though occasionally the bird was seen perched on a dry twig
projecting above the level tops of the thicket. The song was pleasing in
tone, and of good volume, suggesting that of the Yellow Warbler, but
less shrill. Unlike the song of the Yellow Warbler, it was given with a
steady rising inflection. The alarm note is a sharp chirp, audible at
some distance even during a brisk wind. This note is uttered at
intervals and always in the same tone, much as are the chipping notes of
the Orange-crowned Warblers. In searching for food, Mangrove Warblers
resemble others of the genus _Dendroica_ in their habit of searching
each leaf and stem with most careful scrutiny. At times, however, they
were seen to launch forth into the air, in true "flycatcher" fashion,
after small insects. These aerial sallies were seldom for a distance of
over 10 feet, and the bird nearly always returned to the same perch from
which it started.
_Enemies._--The following remarks by Dickey and van Rossem (1938) about
the El Salvador race of this species are of interest:
As the entire lives of these birds are spent in an environment which
renders them immune from attack by the great majority of the predators
which harass species inhabiting the land forest, one is at first
inclined to be surprised at their relative scarcity. Raccoons
(_Procyon_) are extremely common in the mangroves and were often found
prowling through the branches at night. They, as well as carnivorous
iguanas, undoubtedly take toll of many nests, but aside from these two
it is difficult to conjecture what natural enemy operates to limit the
mangrove warbler population. Certainly no "saturation point" has been
reached, for pairs may be separated by as much as a mile even in the
areas which appear most favorable.
DENDROICA MAGNOLIA (Wilson)
MAGNOLIA WARBLER
PLATES 26-28
HABITS
Wilson secured only two specimens of this pretty warbler, one of which
was shot among some magnolia trees near Fort Adams, Miss. He gave it the
scientific name _Sylvia magnolia_ but called it the black and yellow
warbler. This stood for many years as the common name. Nuttall, who had
seen it only occasionally in Massachusetts, regarded it as rare.
Audubon, on the other hand, found it quite common and even abundant in
several places, as we now know it to be. His lively plate of this
beautiful bird, one of his best, has always been a favorite of mine; and
it seems to me that in the magnolia warbler, more than in any one of the
many beautiful species of American wood warblers, are best combined
daintiness of attire with pleasing combinations and contrasts of often
brilliant colors. Particularly are these qualities apparent when this
warbler is seen amongst the dark green firs and spruces of its summer
home, where its brilliant array of colors are displayed to advantage as
it flits about, sometimes within a few feet of us.
_Spring._--From their winter quarters in Mexico and Central America,
some magnolia warblers migrate straight across the Gulf of Mexico to the
Gulf coast between Louisiana and western Florida; they seem to be
accidental in Cuba and very rare anywhere in Florida. Another migration,
probably of some importance, occurs along the coast of Texas from the
mouth of the Rio Grande to Louisiana; I saw a few magnolia warblers in
the great migration wave noted on an island in Galveston Bay on May 4,
1923. Professor Cooke (1904) remarks: "The dates of arrival of the
magnolia warbler in spring furnish the best evidence yet available in
support of the theory that birds migrating across the Gulf of Mexico do
not always alight as soon as they reach the shore. The species is a
common spring migrant from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic,
between latitudes 37° and 39°. South of this district it becomes less
and less common, except in the mountains, until in the Gulf States it is
rare." It is significant that the earliest date of arrival at Atlanta,
Ga., is the same as at the lower Rio Grande in Texas, April 20.
William Brewster (1877) writes:
The Black-and-Yellow Warbler arrives in Massachusetts from the South
about the 15th of May. During the next two or three weeks they are
abundant everywhere in congenial localities. Willow thickets near
streams, ponds, and other damp places, suit them best, but it is also
not unusual to find many in the upland woods, especially where young
pines or other evergreens grow thickly. Their food at this season is
exclusively insects, the larger part consisting of the numerous species
of _Diptera_. The males sing freely, especially on warm bright mornings.
They associate indifferently with all the migrating warblers, but not
unfrequently I have found large flocks composed entirely of members of
their own species, and in this way have seen at least fifty individuals
collected in one small tract of woodland. By the first of June all
excepting a few stragglers have left.
On its migration as well as on its breeding grounds the magnolia warbler
seems to avoid the taller tree-tops and to prefer the lower levels in
the forests and in the thickets along the borders of woodlands; it is
sometimes seen in garden shrubbery and in orchards, where it adds a
brilliant touch of color to the blossoming fruit trees. When it reaches
its breeding haunts it prefers low hemlock thickets, or more especially,
where these can be found, the dense thickets of small spruces or balsam
firs that spring up thickly in old clearings, or grow profusely along
the more open woodland paths; the density of the forest depths seems to
be avoided in favor of the more open spaces.
In Allegany Park, N. Y., according to Aretas A. Saunders (1938);
"Magnolia warblers seem to have territory and a definite singing
location, but I have seen no animosity toward each other or other
species of warblers, such as the black-throated green and blackburnian,
birds that have very similar habits and live in the same habitat and
sometimes sing regularly in the same tree. * * * Territories are
evidently vertical as well as horizontal, that is measured in volume
rather than area, so that a clump of big hemlocks furnishes space for
several pairs and several species of hemlock-loving warblers."
_Courtship._--William H. Moore (1904) says: "During the mating season
the males are pugnacious little fellows, and many fights do rivals have.
They attack each other with much fierceness, seizing hold with their
beaks, and hitting with half-opened wings they sprawl about on the
ground, until thoroughly overcome. When pressing his suit to the female
of his choice, the male displays his colors to great advantage, as they
show in fine contrast among the bright green foliage of the trees."
_Nesting._--All the 14 or more nests that I have seen, in Maine, New
Brunswick, Quebec, and Newfoundland, have been in small spruces or
balsam firs growing in old clearings, in reclaimed boggy pastures, or
along the edges of coniferous woods. These little trees were often less
than 6 feet high and generally stood in dense thickets. The lowest nest
I find recorded in my notes was only 12 inches above the ground in a
tiny fir, and the highest was 8 feet up in a slender balsam in a thick
clump of these trees in rather open woods; more nests were below 5 feet
than above it. The nests usually rested on horizontal branches or twigs
and against the trunk but in a few cases they were placed a few inches
or a foot out on a branch.
Similar nesting habits seem to be characteristic of the magnolia warbler
in other parts of northern New England, Nova Scotia, and southern Canada
according to information received from others; and most of the nests
have been placed at similar low levels, though Mr. Brewster (1938) found
one near Lake Umbagog that was 25 feet from the ground. In this
northeastern region an occasional nest has been found in a cedar, a
larch, or a small hemlock, but at a height usually less than 5 feet.
In New York and Pennsylvania hemlock seems to be the favorite tree, and
the magnolia warbler more often places its nest at a higher level and
well out toward the end of a horizontal branch, where it is usually
shaded and sometimes well concealed in dense foliage. Verdi Burtch, of
Branchport, N. Y., wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) that he found nests "in
hemlocks usually on a horizontal limb from eight to twenty feet up and
over an opening in the woods. Several nests were found in the top of
little hemlock saplings from one to five feet from the ground. One nest
was found by Mr. C. F. Stone in a birch sapling, this being the only
instance to my knowledge of its nesting in a tree other than a hemlock."
He has sent me a photograph of a nest in a wild blackberry bush.
T. E. McMullen has given me the data for 14 nests of the magnolia
warbler found in the Pocono Mountains, Pa.; 10 of these were located in
hemlocks from 30 inches to 30 feet above the ground and from 6 to 12
feet out on the branches; one nest was 30 feet up and one 18, but the
others were all less than 10 from the ground. The other 4 nests were in
rhododendrons, in woods, or along the banks of creeks, and were from 2
to 3 feet up.
Edward A. Preble (Todd, 1940) says that "all but one of more than fifty
nests of this warbler that R. B. Simpson has examined near Warren [Pa.]
were placed in hemlocks. One nest was at the exceptional height of
thirty-five feet; another was only a foot from the ground in some low
hemlock brush." Mr. Simpson's other nest was in a witch-hazel, and Mr.
Saunders reported one in a pin cherry, both under hemlocks.