are often joined in 2-note phrases, the first note of each phrase higher
in pitch than the second and each phrase successively higher, so that
the song trends upward in pitch. This is true of 10 of my 13 records of
the song on the breeding grounds in the Adirondacks. The other 3 have a
slight downward trend. In addition to the more regular form, these songs
have a somewhat brighter, livelier, and more musical sound than those
heard on migration.
"Songs of this species vary from 1 to 2-4/5 seconds in length. There are
usually about seven notes per second. Only 3 of my records show any
irregularity in the time of the notes, that is having some notes that
are shorter or longer than the others. Pitch of the songs varies from
F´´´ to E´´´´, a half tone less than an octave. Single songs vary from
one to four and a half tones, averaging about two and a half tones; only
5 records are greater in range, and only 16 are less, nearly half of the
records having the average range.
"Since the myrtle warbler winters in Connecticut, I am able to get the
first dates of singing. In 30 years of records the average date is April
13; the earliest April 2, 1923, and the latest April 25, 1920. In the
Adirondacks the last date of singing noted was July 31, 1926.
"The call-note, _tchick_, is louder than in most warblers. I found it
pitched on D´´. Another note is a fainter _tseet tseet_, usually doubled
and pitched on F-sharp´´´."
Francis H. Allen (MS.) describes the song in a different way as follows:
"The only syllabifications I find in my notes are of a bird heard at
West Bridgewater, Vt., June 19, 1907, which sang _whee whee whee whee
whee whee whee whee hew hew_, sometimes with three or even four _hews_
at the end and sometimes with only one; and one of a bird at South
Tamworth, N. H., July 23, 1942, whose song consisted of two trills,
_ching ching ching ching ching weedle weedle weet_.
"The ordinary call-note is a hoarse _chep_, easily distinguished from
the call of any other New England warbler. I have also heard
occasionally a slight _tsip_ or _tsit_, suggesting a chickadee. The
feeding call of the young out of the nest is a rapid succession of
several explosive _chips_ or _pits_ with a rolling quality--a sort of
chatter or chippering."
On June 7, 1900, in Washington County, Maine, I recorded the song of the
myrtle warbler as _wheedle wheedle wheedle wheedle wheedle_, repeated
five to seven times so rapidly as to be hard to count and all on one
key, usually ending abruptly but occasionally in a little trill.
Few writers have accorded the song of the myrtle warbler much praise,
but Bradford Torrey (1885) pays it this tribute: "For music to be heard
constantly, right under one's window, it could scarcely be improved:
sweet, brief, and remarkably unobstrusive, without sharpness or
emphasis; a trill not altogether unlike the pine-creeping warbler's, but
less matter-of-fact and business-like. I used to listen to it before I
rose in the morning, and it was to be heard at intervals all day long."
_Field marks._--The male myrtle warbler in spring plumage is easily
recognized at a considerable distance in its blue-gray, black, and white
plumage, offset by conspicuous patches of bright yellow on rump, sides,
and crown, and by the black sides and cheeks. The female is much duller
and browner, the yellow being less conspicuous and the black cheeks
lacking. Young birds and fall adults are much like the female, but the
yellow rump, showing plainly as the bird flies away from the observer,
will distinguish the species at any season or age.
_Enemies._--So much of the breeding range of the myrtle warbler is
beyond the normal breeding range of the cowbirds that, until recently,
it was supposed to be largely free from the imposition of this parasite.
When Dr. Friedmann (1929) published his book on the cowbirds he had only
three records of such molestation, but more have turned up since,
particularly in the Middle West where the ranges of the two species
overlap considerably. Dr. Paul Harrington writes to me from Toronto:
"Sixty-five percent of the nests examined contained eggs or young of the
cowbird; it would not be exaggerating to say that two-thirds of the
initial nests are parasitized. The egg or eggs of the cowbird are often
deposited before the nest is completed, leading to many a deserted nest.
Twice I have found a cowbird's egg imbedded, as so often happens in the
yellow warbler's nest, but in both cases yet another was in the nest
with the owner's. Twelve percent of the nests with eggs of the cowbird
were deserted, but none in which the owner's eggs were also present.
Generally but one of the parasite's eggs was found, occasionally two and
rarely three."
Dr. F. A. E. Starr says in his notes from Ontario: "Occasionally, when a
cowbird usurps a nest, the birds continue building till the cowbird's
egg is imbedded. This is all in vain, however, as out of 30 nests, I
have yet to find one which did not contain from one to three eggs of the
cowbird." And A. D. Henderson mentions in his notes from Belvedere,
Alberta, a nest that held five eggs of the myrtle warbler and one egg of
the Nevada cowbird, and another nestful consisting of four eggs of the
warbler and two of the cowbird. Probably very few young of the warbler
are likely to survive in nests with young cowbirds, which means that
this parasite must seriously interfere with the normal increase in the
warbler population.
Harold S. Peters (1936) lists two lice, two flies, and two mites as
external parasites on the myrtle warbler.
_Fall._--The myrtle warbler is one of the latest of its family to move
southward and is also one of the most leisurely in migration; the
migration covers practically the whole of September and October and much
of November, the earliest arrivals sometimes reaching the Gulf States
before the last ones have left Canada. Abundant in the spring, it is
much more so in the fall, when it can often be seen in enormous numbers.
As the birds drift along southward, many stop along the way where food
is abundant and some spend the winter at no great distance from the
southern limits of the breeding range. In Massachusetts, we usually look
for them during the latter half of September or during those golden
October days when woods are ablaze with the gorgeous autumn colors. As
we stroll along the sunny side of the woods on some bright morning after
a frosty night, the air is full of pleasing bird music. The robins, now
wild woodland birds, are twittering or uttering their wild autumn calls
as they drift through the trees; the white-throated and the song
sparrows, from the brushy thickets below, give forth their faint, sweet
notes like soft echoes of their springtime songs; and the myrtle
warblers mingle their distinctive call-notes with these other voices as
they glean for aphids on the birches. In the open grassy fields and weed
patches, too, we find many myrtle warblers associated with the scattered
flocks of juncos and field and chipping sparrows, feeding on the ground.
And later in the fall, we find them in the bayberry patches near the
seacoast, or even on the salt marshes or among the sand dunes with the
Ipswich and savanna sparrows.
Southward along the Atlantic coast the flight is heavy; Dr. Stone (1937)
says that, at Cape May, N. J., "on October 13, 1913, Julian Potter
encountered a great flight of Myrtle Warblers which he estimated at
3,000. * * * October 31, 1920, was a characteristic Myrtle Warbler day.
All day long they were present in abundance. The air seemed full of them
wherever one went. Thousands were flittering here and there in the dense
growth of rusty Indian grass (_Andropogon_), in the bayberry thickets,
in pine woods and in dune thickets."
From their breeding grounds in the northern interior these warblers
continue to drift southward during October, not in compact flocks but
straggling in a continuous stream, some alighting while others are
moving on. In Ohio, according to Trautman (1940), "the numbers continued
to increase rapidly until approximately October 5. Between October 5 and
20 the species was more numerous over the entire land area than it was
at any other season, and thousands were daily present. It was
particularly abundant on Cranberry Island, where it fed upon insects,
cranberries, poison sumac, and other berries. On several occasions an
estimated number between 1000 and 1200 individuals was seen within an
hour on this island. After October 20 there was a rather gradual decline
in numbers. By November 1, comparatively few remained, and in some years
the birds had disappeared."
_Winter._--The myrtle warbler winters abundantly throughout the southern
half of the United States east of the Great Plains, commonly as far
north as southeastern Kansas, southern Illinois, southern Indiana and
northern New Jersey, and less commonly or rarely and irregularly farther
north. It is the only one of the wood warblers that is hardy enough to
brave the rigors of our northern winters amid ice and snow and sometimes
zero temperatures.
Robert Ridgway (1889) writing of its winter habits in southern Illinois,
says:
It may often be sees in midwinter, when the ground is covered with snow,
in the door-yards along with Snowbirds (_Junco hyemalis_), Tree
Sparrows, and other familiar species, gleaning bread crumbs from the
door-steps, or hunting for spiders or other insect tidbits in the nooks
of the garden fence or the crevices in the bark of trees; and at
evening, flying in considerable companies, to the sheltering branches of
the thickest tree tops (preferably evergreens), where they pass the
night. Not infrequently, however, they roost in odd nooks and crannies
about the buildings, or even in holes in the straw- or hay-stacks, in
the barn-yard. A favorite food of this species are the berries of the
Poison-vine (_Rhus toxicodendron_), and during the early part of winter
large numbers of them may be seen wherever vines of this species are
abundant.
What few myrtle warblers remain in southern Massachusetts are usually to
be found in situations similar to those frequented in late fall,
especially near the coast where there is a good supply of bayberries and
other berries. When this supply is exhausted they move elsewhere, though
they can subsist to some extent on the seeds of the pitch pine, on grass
seed, and on various weed seeds. In New Jersey, they are found in
similar situations. Farther south they are abundant inland as well as on
the coast, living in all kinds of environments--old fields, cultivated
lands, thickets, brushy borders of the woodlands, and in woods of scrub
oaks and pine. They are common to abundant on both coasts of Florida and
in the interior and often come into the orange groves, to feed on the
fallen oranges. A. H. Howell (1932) says: "Not infrequently they may be
found in numbers on the Gulf beaches, or in reeds in the salt marshes of
the coast or in the Everglades. They are partial to the borders of
streams or sloughs, and sometimes venture out on the floating vegetation
in rivers or lakes."
The following is contributed by Dr. Alexander F. Skutch: "In December,
1932, it was vividly brought home to me how widely the myrtle warblers
are spread over the earth during the winter months, and in what varied
climates they dwell. On the ninth, a clear, cold, winter day, I met a
small party of these yellow-rumped birds in a barren field at the edge
of a woods in Maryland. On the twenty-fourth, I watched them fly above
the tatters of melting snow in New Jersey, within view of the
skyscrapers of New York. That afternoon I embarked upon a ship, and a
week later arrived upon a banana plantation in Guatemala, where the air
was balmy and the landscape vividly green, where snow and bleak winds
seemed to belong to another world. Yet here, too, were myrtle warblers,
hundreds of them, feeding in the open pastures and along the roadways,
wherever the vegetation was not too dense, then rising up in compact
flocks, wheeling and dropping together, moving always as though
actuated by a true group spirit. During three days on that plantation, I
met 23 kinds of winter visitants from the North; yet the myrtle warbler
appeared to be the most abundant of them all: certainly, I saw far more
of them than of any other migratory bird; yet this was in part because
they foraged in more exposed places. Of all the warblers I found here,
this was the only species that moved in flocks; for most of the wood
warblers that winter in the Central American lowlands are strict
individualists. It is also significant that of all the 23 species of
wintering birds, this, the most abundant in December, was the only one
then common that I had not recorded from February to June of the same
year, when I passed 4 months studying the birds on that same plantation.
"Although it has been recorded from Central American localities as early
as October and as late as April, the myrtle warbler is certainly most
abundant as a winter visitant from November to March. All my own records
from points in Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica fall within these 5
months. It arrives later and departs earlier than warblers less tolerant
of cold.
"The myrtle warbler winters in a variety of situations. At Puerto
Castilla, on the northern coast of Honduras, I found these warblers
abundant at the end of January, 1931. Here they foraged upon the lawns
between the cottages, hopping rather than walking like water-thrushes,
and when alarmed flew up to rest upon the broad fronds of the coconut
palms that lined the sandy beach. At the other extreme, I have found
them in mountain pastures, rarely as high as 8,500 feet above sea level.
In the highlands, this bird is likely to be confused with the Audubon
warbler, from the mountains of western United States, in similar dull
winter attire. But the Audubon warbler, even at this season, wears five
patches of yellow--on the crown, throat, both sides and rump--while the
myrtle warbler shows only four, lacking that on the throat. The presence
or absence of yellow on the throat is a distinguishing feature.
"At the end of December, 1937, I found myrtle warblers abundant in the
vicinity of Buenos Aires de Osa, a hamlet in the lower Térraba Valley of
Costa Rica, of interest to the bird-watcher because, although lying in a
region covered by the heaviest lowland forest, it is surrounded by
extensive open savannas which support a rather different bird-life. Here
fork-tailed flycatchers were also abundant, roosting by night in some
orange trees behind the padre's house, by day spreading in small flocks
over the savannas, where they perched in the low bushes, only a few feet
above the ground, and darted down to snatch up the insects they
descried. It was surprising to find the myrtle warblers associating
intimately with the flycatchers; just as, in the Guatemalan highlands,
I had found Audubon's warblers flocking with bluebirds. The myrtle
warblers not only foraged about the bushes which served the flycatchers
as watch-towers; but the two kinds of birds, so dissimilar in size and
habits, changed their feeding grounds together. While I sometimes found
the warblers alone, I saw them in company with the fork-tailed
flycatchers too often for the association to be looked upon as
accidental. I could not discover that either warbler or flycatcher
derived any material advantage from the presence of the other. It seemed
to be a case of pure socialibility.
"Central American dates are: Guatemala--Motagua Valley, near Los Amates,
December 31, 1932; Sierra de Tecpán, March 16, 1933; Finca Mocá, January
20-26, 1935; Nebaj (Griscom), April 27; La Primavera (Griscom), April 8.
Honduras--Puerto Castilla, January 27, 1931; Tela (Peters), March 17.
Costa Rica--Vara Blanca, December 13, 1937, to February 28, 1938;
Guayabo (Ridgway and Zeledón), March 18; Carrillo (Underwood), October
2; Guacimo (Carriker), December 4; Las Cañas, Guanacaste, November 21,
1936; El General, January 12, 1936; Buenos Aires de Osa, December 24-30,
1937."
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--North America.
_Breeding range._--The myrtle warbler breeds =north= to northern Alaska
(Kobuk River and timberline on the south slope of the Brooks Range);
northern Yukon (La Pierre House); northern Mackenzie (Aklavik; Fort
Anderson; MacTavish Bay, Bear Lake; Lake Hardisty, and Artillery Lake);
northern Manitoba (Lac du Brochet, Cochrane River, and Churchill);
northern Ontario (Moose Factory); southern Labrador (Grand Falls and
Rigolet, possibly Nain and Okkak). =East= to eastern Labrador (Rigolet
and Cartwright); Newfoundland (St. Anthony, Canada Bay, and St. John's);
and Nova Scotia (Cape Breton Island, Sable Island, Halifax, and
Yarmouth). =South= to southern Nova Scotia (Yarmouth); New Brunswick
(Grand Manan); southern Maine (Gouldsboro, Deer Isle, Bath, and Auburn);
New Hampshire (Concord); central and southern Massachusetts (Marlboro,
Webster, and Pelham); southwestern Vermont (Bennington); northern New
York (Falls Pond and Buffalo); rarely northeastern Pennsylvania (Pocono
Lake); accidentally in northern Maryland (Havre de Grace); southern
Ontario (London and Sarnia); northern Michigan (Crawford County and
Douglas Lake); northern Wisconsin (Antigo, probably, Trout Lake,
Namekagon Lake, and Superior); central Minnesota (St. Cloud, Brainerd,
and Bemidji); southern Manitoba (Winnipeg and Aweme); central
Saskatchewan (Flotten Lake and Prince Albert); central Alberta
(Flagstaff, Camrose, Lobstick River, and Wipiti River); northern British
Columbia (Fort St. John, Ingenika River, and Buckley Lake); and
southern Alaska (Admiralty Island, Sitka, Seldovia, and Nushagak).
=West= to western Alaska (Nushagak, Russian Mission, St. Michael, and
the Kobuk River).
_Winter range._--The myrtle warbler winters in two discontinuous areas.
The principal winter home is =north= to central Oklahoma (Oklahoma
City); northern Arkansas (Winslow, Little Rock, and Helena); western
Tennessee (Memphis); southern Illinois (Anna and Mount Carmel); southern
Kentucky (Bowling Green); central Virginia (Lexington); District of
Columbia (Washington); southeastern Pennsylvania (Philadelphia);
northern New Jersey (Morristown and Elizabeth); southern Connecticut
(New Haven); Rhode Island (Providence); and northeastern Massachusetts
(Cape Ann). It also occurs in winter irregularly =north= to Holly,
Colo.; Hays and Manhattan, Kan.; Madison, Wis.; Chicago, Ill.; Battle
Creek and Rochester (one banded in January), Mich.; Rochester, N. Y.;
and Portland, Maine. =East= to Massachusetts (Cape Ann) and along the
Atlantic coast to Florida (Miami and Key West); the Bahama Islands
(Little Abaco and Caicos); Dominican Republic (Puerto Plato and
Sánchez); Puerto Rico (San Juan); St. Croix Island; and rarely, Antigua.
=South= to Antigua, northern Colombia, rare or accidental (Santa Marta
region); and Panamá (Pearl Islands). =West= to Panamá (Pearl Islands,
Canal Zone, and Almirante); Costa Rica (El General and Guayabo); eastern
Nicaragua (Greytown and the Río Escondido); northern Honduras (Puerto
Castilla and Lancetilla); western Guatemala (Dueñas and Tecpán); eastern
Oaxaca (Tehuantepec); Veracruz (Orizaba); Tamaulipas (Victoria); Nuevo
León (Monterrey); southwestern Texas (mouth of the Pecos River, Camp
Barkeley, Taylor County, and Fort Worth); and central Oklahoma (Oklahoma
City).
The western winter range is =north= to central Western Oregon (Newport
and Albany). =East= to western Oregon (Albany); central California
(Marysville, Stockton, Mariposa County, Redlands, and Potholes);
southern Arizona (Tucson and Tombstone); and southwestern Sonora
(Guaymas). =South= to southern Sonora. =West= to western Sonora (Guaymas
and the Colorado River delta); western California (San Clementi Island,
Santa Barbara, San Francisco Bay region, and Eureka); and western Oregon
(Coss Bay and Newport).
The species as outlined is divided into two subspecies or geographic
races. The Alaska myrtle warbler (_D. c. hooveri_) breeds from western
Alaska and northwestern Mackenzie to central Alberta and central British
Columbia; the eastern myrtle warbler (_D. c. coronata_) from western
Saskatchewan eastward.
_Migration._--Late dates of spring departure from the winter home are:
Costa Rica--Guayabo, March 18. El Salvador--Volcán de San Miguel, March
22. Guatemala--Nebaj, April 27. Honduras--Lancetilla, March 17.
Mexico--Valles, San Luis Potosí, May 2. Puerto Rico--Mayagüez, April 8.
Haiti--Port-au-Prince, April 27. Cuba--Habana, April 28. Bahamas--New
Providence, April 2. Florida--Pensacola, May 13. Alabama--Birmingham,
May 8. Georgia--Atlanta, May 20. South Carolina--Greenwood, May 12.
Louisiana--Mansfield, May 2. Mississippi--Oxford, May 8.
Tennessee--Nashville, May 17. Arkansas--Helena, May 18. Texas--Bonham,
May 6. Oklahoma--Norman, May 3.
Early dates of spring arrival are: New York--New York, April 1.
Massachusetts--Lynn, April 11. Vermont--St. Johnsbury, April 12.
Maine--Portland, April 6. New Brunswick--Scotch Lake, April 11. Nova
Scotia--Yarmouth, April 11. Quebec--Hatley, April 22. Newfoundland--St.
Anthony, April 25. Labrador--Cartwright, May 24. Illinois--Chicago,
March 24. Indiana--Bloomington, March 26. Ohio--Youngstown, April 1.
Ontario--Harrow, April 3. Michigan--Sault Ste. Marie, April 9.
Missouri--Columbia, March 27. Iowa--Sigourney, April 3. Wisconsin--New
London, April 1. Minnesota--Minneapolis, April 4. Kansas--Independence,
April 7. Nebraska--Red Cloud, April 1. South Dakota--Brookings, April 7.
North Dakota--Fargo, April 13. Manitoba--Aweme, April 12.
Saskatchewan--Eastend, April 22. Mackenzie--Simpson, May 7. New
Mexico--San Antonio, April 18. Colorado--Colorado Springs, April 17.
Wyoming--Laramie, April 15. Montana--Kirby, April 29. Alberta--Glenevis,
April 14. Washington--Seattle, March 14. British Columbia--Courtenay,
March 31; Atlin, April 21. Yukon--Sheldon Lake, April 26.
Alaska--Wrangell, April 29; Fairbanks, May 7.
Late dates of spring departure of transients are: District of
Columbia--Washington, June 1. Pennsylvania--Warren, June 6.
Illinois--Chicago, June 3. Indiana--Waterloo, June 3. Ohio--Oberlin, May
31. Missouri--Concordia, May 25. Iowa--Grinnell, June 1.
Nebraska--Nenzel, May 27. North Dakota--Argusville, May 30.
California--Red Bluff, May 3. Nevada--Quinn River Crossing, May 21.
Washington--Tacoma, May 3.
Late dates of fall departure are: British Columbia--Atlin, September 19;
Courtenay, October 14. Mackenzie--Nahami River, October 25.
Wyoming--Laramie, November 25. Saskatchewan--Yorkton, October 14.
Manitoba--Brandon, October 31. North Dakota--Argusville, November 15.
South Dakota--Faulkton, November 15. Kansas--Lawrence, November 12.
Minnesota--St. Paul, November 5. Wisconsin--Racine, November 16.
Iowa--Wall Lake, November 15. Missouri--Kansas City, November 16.
Illinois--Murphysboro, November 21. Michigan--Detroit, November 19.
Indiana--Indianapolis, November 20. Ontario--Point Pelee, November 23.
Ohio--Toledo, November 17. Newfoundland--Tompkins, October 4. Prince
Edward Island--North River, October 15. Quebec--Kamouraska, November 9.
New Brunswick--Saint John, November 4. Maine--Portland, November 9. New
Hampshire--Durham, November 4. Massachusetts--Boston, November 27. New
York--Brooklyn, November 22. Pennsylvania--Doylestown, November 29.