Wilson's Warbler
Encyclopedia
The Wilson's Warbler, Wilsonia pusilla, is a small New World warbler
. It is primarily greenish above and yellow below, with rounded wings and a long, slim tail. The male has a black crown patch which is greatly reduced or missing entirely in the female. It breeds across Canada
and south through the western United States
, and winters from Mexico
south through much of Central America
. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe
.
, ranging from 10 to 12 cm (3.9 to 4.7 in) in length, with a wingspan
of 14 – and a mass of 5 –. It has a plain green-brown back and yellow underparts. The male has a small black cap. Males of the western race W. p. chryseola are greener above and brighter than the eastern race. The Western-central and Alaskan Warblers are typically slightly larger in size than those found on the Eastern and Pacific coast populations. Some of the common names include Chipe coronoa negra, Reinita Gorrinegra, Reinita de Wilson, Chipe Careto, Reinita de Capucha, Chipe Coroninegro in Spanish speaking populations and Paruline à calotte noire in French.
is a series of descending notes typically in a loud, rapid series of chatter-like tones. The male makes a hurried, staccato sound resembling chatter that will drop in pitch near the end of the call called a flat chuff.
Song or calls of the Wilson's warbler
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Warbler/sounds
Wilson's Warbler (Mountain West)-- Cardellina pusilla pileolata http://macaulaylibrary.org/search?location_id=&location_type_id=&location=&recordist=&recordist_id=&catalogs=&behavior=&behavior_id=&tab=audio-list&taxon_id=12023765&taxon_rank_id=76&taxon=wilsons+warbler+mountain+west
(Eastern)-- Cardellina pusilla pusilla http://macaulaylibrary.org/search?location_id=&location_type_id=&location=&recordist=&recordist_id=&catalogs=&behavior=&behavior_id=&tab=audio-list&taxon_id=12023766&taxon_rank_id=76&taxon=wilsons+warbler+eastern
, who placed it in the Old World flycatcher
genus Muscicapa
. The species was moved to its current genus, Wilsonia, by the French naturalist
and ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte
in 1838. However, it did not remain there for long; zoologist Thomas Nuttall
moved it to the now-defunct genus Sylvania in 1840, and by 1845, many authors included it in the now-defunct genus Myiodioctes. In 1899, the American Ornithological Union returned the species to Wilsonia, where it has remained since.
Its genus name, Wilsonia, is a Latinization
of its describer's surname, and its species name, pusilla, is derived from the Latin
word pusillus, meaning very small.
There are three recognized subspecies
:
The Wilson's Warbler closely resembles the Yellow Warbler
: the latter is distinguished primarily by its yellow tailfeathers.
with undergrowth or shrubs and thickets in moist areas with streams, ponds, bogs, and wet forest clearings.
Wilson's warbler migrations for breeding to Northern Canada and Northwestern US in the summer with a winter migration to Southern Mexico. Winters in some overgrown clearings and coffee plantations as well as forest edges, deciduous forests, tropical evergreens, pine-oak forests, mangroves, thorn-scrubs, riparian gallery forests, brushy fields, and mixed forests across the Northern Hemisphere of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Prefers secondary growth, riparian habitats, lakes, montane
and boreal forests with overgrown clear-cuts.
, feeding primarily on insect
s gleaned
from leaves and twigs, or caught by flycatching. Some of these insects include beetles, bees, or caterpillars. The Wilson's warbler is an active forager moving rapidly through shrubs, on the ground, and sometimes in taller trees during the winter. They oftern twich their tails or flick their wings in a nervous manner while foraging.
It also eats a few berries
.
It builds a cup nest
, typically constructed of vegetation and lined with grasses and hair from other animals resembling a bowl like shape. It is often sunken into moss or sedges located at the base of shrubs or under the lower branches of shrubs. The clutch varies between 2–7 eggs
consisting of a creamy or off-white color with fine reddish spots throughout. The young are altricial
. The montane populations generally have a higher clutch size and nest success rate than those on the coast. The eggs will hatch at 11-15 days and the young fledge
at 8-13 days while one or the other parent will take care of them for several weeks.
The Wilson's warbler can be territorial as well as seasonal monogamous although some Montane populations are polygymous (one male breeds with multiple females). The Wilson's warbler nests often experience parasitism from the Brown-headed cowbird
in which the Brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) will abandon it's own eggs in the nests of the Wilson's warbler to raise.
New World warbler
The New World warblers or wood-warblers are a group of small, often colorful, passerine birds restricted to the New World. They are not related to the Old World warblers or the Australian warblers....
. It is primarily greenish above and yellow below, with rounded wings and a long, slim tail. The male has a black crown patch which is greatly reduced or missing entirely in the female. It breeds across Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and south through the western United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and winters from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
south through much of Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Description
The Wilson's Warbler is a small passerinePasserine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
, ranging from 10 to 12 cm (3.9 to 4.7 in) in length, with a wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
of 14 – and a mass of 5 –. It has a plain green-brown back and yellow underparts. The male has a small black cap. Males of the western race W. p. chryseola are greener above and brighter than the eastern race. The Western-central and Alaskan Warblers are typically slightly larger in size than those found on the Eastern and Pacific coast populations. Some of the common names include Chipe coronoa negra, Reinita Gorrinegra, Reinita de Wilson, Chipe Careto, Reinita de Capucha, Chipe Coroninegro in Spanish speaking populations and Paruline à calotte noire in French.
Voice
Its songBird song
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls.-Definition:The distinction between songs and calls is based upon...
is a series of descending notes typically in a loud, rapid series of chatter-like tones. The male makes a hurried, staccato sound resembling chatter that will drop in pitch near the end of the call called a flat chuff.
Song or calls of the Wilson's warbler
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Warbler/sounds
Wilson's Warbler (Mountain West)-- Cardellina pusilla pileolata http://macaulaylibrary.org/search?location_id=&location_type_id=&location=&recordist=&recordist_id=&catalogs=&behavior=&behavior_id=&tab=audio-list&taxon_id=12023765&taxon_rank_id=76&taxon=wilsons+warbler+mountain+west
(Eastern)-- Cardellina pusilla pusilla http://macaulaylibrary.org/search?location_id=&location_type_id=&location=&recordist=&recordist_id=&catalogs=&behavior=&behavior_id=&tab=audio-list&taxon_id=12023766&taxon_rank_id=76&taxon=wilsons+warbler+eastern
Taxonomy and etymology
The Wilson's Warbler was first described in 1811 by the American ornithologist Alexander WilsonAlexander Wilson
Alexander Wilson was a Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator.Wilson was born in Paisley, Scotland, the son of an illiterate distiller. In 1779 he was apprenticed as a weaver. His main interest at this time was in writing poetry...
, who placed it in the Old World flycatcher
Old World flycatcher
The Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae is a large family of small passerine birds mostly restricted to the Old World. These are mainly small arboreal insectivores, many of which, as the name implies, take their prey on the wing.-Characteristics:...
genus Muscicapa
Muscicapa
Muscicapa is a genus of passerine birds belonging to the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, and therein to the typical flycatchers of subfamily Muscicapinae. They are widespread across Europe, Africa and Asia with most species occurring in forest and woodland habitats...
. The species was moved to its current genus, Wilsonia, by the French naturalist
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
and ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte
Charles Lucien Bonaparte
Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano was a French naturalist and ornithologist.-Biography:...
in 1838. However, it did not remain there for long; zoologist Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall
Thomas Nuttall was an English botanist and zoologist, who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841....
moved it to the now-defunct genus Sylvania in 1840, and by 1845, many authors included it in the now-defunct genus Myiodioctes. In 1899, the American Ornithological Union returned the species to Wilsonia, where it has remained since.
Its genus name, Wilsonia, is a Latinization
Latinisation (literature)
Latinisation is the practice of rendering a non-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly met with for historical personal names, with toponyms, or for the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences. It goes further than Romanisation, which is the writing of a word in the Latin alphabet...
of its describer's surname, and its species name, pusilla, is derived from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word pusillus, meaning very small.
There are three recognized subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
:
- W. p. pusilla was first described by Alexander Wilson in 1811.
- W. p. pileolata was first described by German naturalist Peter Simon PallasPeter Simon PallasPeter Simon Pallas was a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia.- Life and work :Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery Simon Pallas. He studied with private tutors and took an interest in natural history, later attending the University of Halle and the University...
in 1811. - W. p. chryseola was first described by American ornithologist Robert Ridgway in 1902.
The Wilson's Warbler closely resembles the Yellow Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Dendroica petechia is a New World warbler species or superspecies; the subspecies group around D. aestiva is increasingly treated as good species Dendroica aestiva again. The name for the entire cryptic species complex is Mangrove Warbler, and another group of subspecies is known as Golden Warbler...
: the latter is distinguished primarily by its yellow tailfeathers.
Range and habitat
The breeding habitat is fairly open woodlandWoodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
with undergrowth or shrubs and thickets in moist areas with streams, ponds, bogs, and wet forest clearings.
Wilson's warbler migrations for breeding to Northern Canada and Northwestern US in the summer with a winter migration to Southern Mexico. Winters in some overgrown clearings and coffee plantations as well as forest edges, deciduous forests, tropical evergreens, pine-oak forests, mangroves, thorn-scrubs, riparian gallery forests, brushy fields, and mixed forests across the Northern Hemisphere of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Prefers secondary growth, riparian habitats, lakes, montane
Montane
In biogeography, montane is the highland area located below the subalpine zone. Montane regions generally have cooler temperatures and often have higher rainfall than the adjacent lowland regions, and are frequently home to distinct communities of plants and animals.The term "montane" means "of the...
and boreal forests with overgrown clear-cuts.
Diet
The Wilson's Warbler is an insectivoreInsectivore
An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures. An alternate term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of eating insects....
, feeding primarily on insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s gleaned
Gleaning (birds)
Gleaning is a term for a feeding strategy by birds in which they catch invertebrate prey, mainly arthropods, by plucking them from foliage or the ground, from crevices such as rock faces and under the eaves of houses, or even, as in the case of ticks and lice, from living animals. This behavior is...
from leaves and twigs, or caught by flycatching. Some of these insects include beetles, bees, or caterpillars. The Wilson's warbler is an active forager moving rapidly through shrubs, on the ground, and sometimes in taller trees during the winter. They oftern twich their tails or flick their wings in a nervous manner while foraging.
It also eats a few berries
Berry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
.
Breeding and Nesting
The majority of the breeding range occurs between the Northern United States boreal forest zones. Nesting generally begins in early March for the West coast populations into August for the Northern ranges. The female does the majority of the nest building.It builds a cup nest
Bird nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...
, typically constructed of vegetation and lined with grasses and hair from other animals resembling a bowl like shape. It is often sunken into moss or sedges located at the base of shrubs or under the lower branches of shrubs. The clutch varies between 2–7 eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
consisting of a creamy or off-white color with fine reddish spots throughout. The young are altricial
Altricial
Altricial, meaning "requiring nourishment", refers to a pattern of growth and development in organisms which are incapable of moving around on their own soon after hatching or being born...
. The montane populations generally have a higher clutch size and nest success rate than those on the coast. The eggs will hatch at 11-15 days and the young fledge
Fledge
Fledge is the stage in a young bird's life when the feathers and wing muscles are sufficiently developed for flight. It also describes the act of a chick's parents raising it to a fully grown state...
at 8-13 days while one or the other parent will take care of them for several weeks.
The Wilson's warbler can be territorial as well as seasonal monogamous although some Montane populations are polygymous (one male breeds with multiple females). The Wilson's warbler nests often experience parasitism from the Brown-headed cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
The Brown-headed Cowbird is a small brood parasitic icterid of temperate to subtropical North America. They are permanent residents in the southern parts of their range; northern birds migrate to the southern United States and Mexico in winter, returning to their summer habitat around March or...
in which the Brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) will abandon it's own eggs in the nests of the Wilson's warbler to raise.
External links
- Wilson's Warbler - Wilsonia pusilla - USGS Patuxent Bird Identification InfoCenter
- Wilson's Warbler Information and Photos - South Dakota Birds and Birding