Length: A little over 5½ inches.
Male: _Forehead_ and _cheeks black_, giving the effect of a _black
mask_; _crown, nape, throat, upper breast_, and _sides_ a beautiful
chestnut-red; a patch of buff at each side of the neck; lower breast
and belly buff; back brownish-gray, with black streaks; wings and
tail brownish-gray; two broad white wing-bars; tail with white spots
near tip of outer feathers.
Female: Upper parts grayish-brown, streaked with black; under parts
buff, breast and sides washed with reddish-brown; crown brownish;
two white wing-bars.
Song: "A monotonous, lisping song, with perhaps a few more musical,
ringing notes."[155]
Habitat: "The Bay-breasted warbler usually frequents the tops of trees
during migration, being especially fond of chestnuts, oaks, and
hickories just as the leaves are bursting. It is also found in
orchards and about the shade trees of streets and parks as well as
in the midst of woodlands.... It prefers the upper portions of trees
except in cold or stormy weather when it descends and feeds among
the underbrush."[156] William Brewster says that they live in dense
woods, especially among the pines and other cone-bearing trees.
Range: Eastern North America. Breeds in north-central and southern
Canada, northern Maine, and mountains of New Hampshire; winters in
Panama and Colombia; irregular on the Atlantic slope and south of
Virginia. One of our less common warblers.